Venezuela’s arrest warrant for opposition leader condemned by U.S., Brazil

Brazil’s top foreign policy adviser on Tuesday slammed the arrest warrant issued by Caracas for Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as “very concerning” and said there was a clear “authoritarian escalation”in the country.

Other countries around the Americas, including the United States, Argentina and Peru, also condemned the move.

The Venezuelan attorney general’s office said on Monday that a court had issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, the opposition’s erstwhile presidential candidate, accusing him of conspiracy and other crimes amid a dispute over whether he or President Nicolas Maduro won the July 28 election.

Brazil’s Celso Amorim said in an interview with Reuters that if Venezuelan authorities were to go through with Gonzalez’s arrest, “it would be a political arrest, and we do not accept (there should be) political prisoners.”

“There is no denying that there is an authoritarian escalation in Venezuela. We do not feel openness to dialogue, there is a very strong reaction to any comment,” Amorim said, while adding that Brazil still held out hope for a solution to the crisis.

Washington also criticized the warrant, which followed weeks of comments from Venezuelan government officials that Gonzalez and other members of the opposition should go to jail.

“This is just another example of Mr. Maduro’s efforts to maintain power by force and to refuse to recognize that Mr. Gonzalez won the most votes on the 28th of July,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“We’re considering a range of options to demonstrate to Mr. Maduro and his representatives that their actions in Venezuela will have consequences.”

A statement is expected from Gonzalez later on Tuesday. His lawyer Jose Vicente Haro