Maduro opponent defies Venezuela high court summons

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who claims to be the rightful winner of the country's presidential election, on Wednesday defied a Supreme Court summons over the disputed results.

Election authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the July 28 vote without releasing detailed results, prompting the opposition to cry foul and sparking protests last week which left at least 24 people dead, according to rights groups.

Multiple countries, including the United States and several Latin American nations, have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner, and have called on Venezuela to publish election data.

Maduro, who has called for Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to be locked up, took the dispute to the Supreme Court to have his victory "validated."

Election authorities said they had handed the election data to the court -- both institutions are widely considered to be loyal to Maduro's government.

The 74-year-old Gonzalez Urrutia, who had been summoned to appear in court on Wednesday morning, said he doubted how impartial the procedure would be.

"I will be jeopardizing not only my freedom but, more importantly: the will of the Venezuelan people expressed on July 28," he said on social media.

He said Maduro has stated "that if I do not appear, I will incur legal responsibilities, and that if I appear and file copies (of voting records), there will also be serious criminal responsibilities."

The president of the court, Caryslia Rodriguez noted his "failure to comply with the summons."

- Poll result a mystery -

Other representatives of the opposition coalition did appear, such as the governor of the state of Zulia, Manuel Rosales, who demanded the election authority "publish the final results."

The opposition has launched a website with copies of 84 percent of ballots cast, showing an easy win for Gonzalez Urrutia. The government claims these are forged.

Simon Calzadilla, of the Movement for Venezuela (MPV), who also supported Gonzalez Urrutia, said: "No political party knows, 11 days after the election, what the result of the vote was."

He also questioned the court's jurisdiction in certifying the results.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken reaffirmed his assertion that Gonzalez Urrutia won the election during a phone call to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

The pair "expressed concerns for the safety and well-being of opposition leaders following the election, and condemned the political violence and repression, indiscriminate arrests, and violation of due process," Miller said.

The US-based Carter Center NGO, whose monitors observed the election, said it had confirmed Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner after analyzing available data from polling stations.

In an interview with AFP, Jennie Lincoln, the head of the group's Venezuela mission, also dismissed claims that Venezuela's electoral system was the target of a cyberattack during the vote.

- 'Nobody here is backing down' -

The Supreme Court, which summoned all candidates, has said it would take at least 15 days to come to a decision.

Retired diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia was little known until he agreed to replace the hugely popular Machado as the opposition candidate at the last minute, after she was barred from running.

Machado has also been in hiding, saying she "fears" for her life, making only a brief appearance Saturday during a mass opposition protest.

In an interview with local media Wednesday, she said the opposition would continue "moving forward" even though Maduro's repression has been "massive."

"Nobody here is backing down and no one is demoralized, on the contrary, we are committed to fulfilling the next steps, to increase pressure from the outside," Machado said.

Maduro has announced more than 2,000 arrests since the election. Two soldiers have also been killed in protests.

A local press union said Wednesday that four journalists arrested during the post-election unrest had been charged with "terrorism".

Maduro has led the oil-rich country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 percent that pushed more than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela's 30 million citizens to emigrate.

He is accused of locking up critics and harassing opponents in a climate of rising authoritarianism.

Maduro's previous reelection, in 2018, was rejected as a sham by dozens of Latin American and other countries, including the United States and EU members.