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Venezuela’s government has offered a $100,000 (\u00a381,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of the opposition’s exiled presidential candidate Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez. <\/p>\n
He fled the country in September<\/a> and was granted political asylum in Spain after Venezuela’s authorities ordered his arrest, accusing Gonz\u00e1lez of conspiracy and of forging documents.<\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez had vowed to return to Venezuela before President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro’s inauguration next Friday, accusing the government of rigging the vote. <\/p>\n Shortly after the reward was announced, Gonz\u00e1lez said he was travelling to Argentina to begin a tour of Latin America, where he will meet fierce Maduro critic President Javier Milei on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The United Nations’ Human Rights Committee has ordered Venezuela “to refrain from destroying” the voting tallies<\/a> from the presidential election in July 2024.<\/p>\n The voting tallies – a detailed official breakdown of the votes from each polling station – have been at the centre of the dispute over who won the election.<\/p>\n The government-aligned National Electoral Council (CNE) declared the incumbent, Maduro, the winner but failed to provide the voting tallies to back up its claim.<\/p>\n The opposition, which with the help of accredited election witnesses collected and published more than 80% of the voting tallies, says these prove that its candidate, Gonz\u00e1lez, was the overwhelming winner.<\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez was not well known in Venezuela when he registered as a candidate for the country’s presidential election back in March.<\/p>\n He had never run for public office before and was not even widely known in opposition circles.<\/p>\n But months after he decided to run for the top office, the low-key former diplomat overtook Maduro in the opinion polls.<\/p>\n Venezuela has seen divisions between government and opposition supporters get ever deeper over the past decade or so.<\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez’s reconciliatory tone during the presidential campaign was in stark contrast to that of Maduro, who warned of a “bloodbath” should Gonz\u00e1lez win.<\/p>\n The 2018 re-election of Maduro was widely dismissed<\/a> as neither free nor fair.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n