Edmundo González Urrutia stayed home, and it wasn’t the blackout that hit 80 percent of Venezuela that kept him from meeting the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, who is investigating alleged electoral offenses. María Corina Machado, the leader of the antimadurismo movement, had said on Thursday that the opposition candidate in the July 28 election would skip the appointment at the Public Ministry. Saab left open the option of forcing attendance due to a third failure to comply with the judicial summons.
Perkins Rocha, legal coordinator for Vente Venezuela, Machado’s party, was accused by the prosecutor of crimes including “treason to the homeland,” “terrorism,” “conspiracy,” and “incitement of hate” during a hearing at the intelligence service headquarters, where he remains detained. Rocha is not González Urrutia, and the question remains whether the Miraflores Palace will cross the self-imposed red line of repression seen in past moments of the conflict.
The government faced a larger problem that Friday than the abstention of the former diplomat, aged 75, who, according to the Unified Democratic Platform, had won the elections. Officials stated that at 4:40 a.m. a broad portion of the country experienced a “sabotage” that left 24 states without power. “From early on, the entire power and service team at Corpoelec has been working hard to reverse this disruption and restore service across the country,” said Freddy Ñáñez, the minister of Communications. Power began returning to parts of Caracas as the government turned its rhetoric toward the opposition. “I stand with the people, facing this criminal attack. Calm and composure, nerves of steel,” President Nicolás Maduro declared.
The Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello attributed the action to the “ultra-right,” arguing that this faction repeats its methods “because they know peace is taking hold, they are defeated, and their violent agenda has failed.” Cabello, who recently took charge of the security forces, warned that “Our response will be decisive.” For Jorge Arraza, another Maduro ally, there is no doubt that a link exists between the power cuts and the opposition’s refusal to acknowledge electoral results. “You can see all the signs pointing to opponents, from cyberattacks to the electric grid.”
Reactions from the opposition side included a few voices who dismissed the mega blackout as a conspiratorial act. “That narrative isn’t believed even by the most radical chavistas, but they fall silent because they are also pursued,” said Juan Pablo Guanipa. Former deputy José Guerra echoed the same line: “the refrain when there is a blackout is sabotage. The theft of billions from the emergency electricity fund since 2010 has its effect on system failures.”
Lula no reconoce a Maduro
The image of a Caracas in darkness not only overlays the prosecutor’s warnings to González Urrutia about the consequences of refusing to testify. A few hours after the EU decided not to recognize Maduro’s victory, certified by the Supreme Court, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed a similar stance to Europe but with a key distinction: “I do not accept his victory or the opposition’s. There are no proofs. Then we demand proofs,” he said on a Brazilian radio station.
Lula has sought, along with his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro, to help a negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis. The efforts, which included proposals for a coalition government and new elections, have not yet reached a fruitful conclusion. Lula stated that he does not question the Supreme Court for validating the July 28 results, but he believed the CNE should have handled it differently: “President Maduro did not listen to the CNE and went directly to the Court. It should pass through the Council, which was created for that purpose.”
The CNE rector Juan Carlos Delpino reiterated his disagreement with the agency’s hypotheses of a cyberattack. “I have technical and audit evidence, and the tally sheet shows that the hack may never have happened.”