Top Venezuelan prosecutor launches criminal investigation into Maduro opposition

Venezuela’s attorney general announced a criminal investigation on Monday, into President Nicolás Maduro’s opponents for calling on the country’s armed forces to stop supporting their leader and stop repressing demonstrators.

The Associated Press reported that Attorney General Tarek William Saab released a statement on the investigation tied to a written appeal by presidential candidate Edmundo González and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The appeal, sent hours before Saab announced the investigation, was about Maduro and the demonstrators who protested in defense of their votes cast during the July 28 election.

In a post on X, Saab accused the duo of falsely announcing "a winner of the presidential election other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council, the only body qualified to do so."

Saab also said González and Machado openly incited "police and military officials to disobey the laws."

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According to Saab, the written appeal by González and Machado exhibits that they committed various crimes like usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause fear and conspiracy.

The two suspects called on leaders of security forces to reconsider their loyalty toward Maduro.

"We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to put themselves on the side of the people and their families," González and Machado wrote. "We won this election without any doubt. It was an electoral avalanche."

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"Now it’s up to all of us to respect the voice of the people," they added.

The Maduro-controlled National Electoral