This is a sad story which just keeps getting worse. Socialist dictators Nicolas Maduro stole the recent election and seems to be getting away with it despite clear evidence that his opposition opponent Edmundo Gonzalez won by a wide margin. To solidify his rule, Maduro has been cracking down on dissent, jailing hundreds of opposition figures and forcing others to flee the country for their own safety. Last week, his government issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez himself. 

In a letter posted on X on Monday, the Prosecutor’s Office said Gonzalez is suspected of “crimes associated with terrorism” including “usurpation of functions, forging a public document, instigation to disobedience of the laws (and) association to commit a crime and conspiracy.”

Gonzalez has denied the accusations against him. The Prosecutor’s Office has previously said it is also investigating opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for the same alleged crimes.

Machado said Monday that the threat of arrest would only help to unite the opposition.

“(The government) have lost all notion of reality. By threatening the president-elect they only manage to unite us more and increase the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González.”

As you may recall, Gonzalez was only on the ballot because the government ruled prior to the election that leading opposition candidate Maria Machado was ineligible to run for office for the next 15 years. They did this after the opposition held a primary to select its next leader. Machado won that vote by a landslide. So the selection of Gonzales was always meant as a workaround. He would run with the understanding that his government would effectively be a stand-in for Machado. But now the Maduro regime has pressured Gonzalez into fleeing the country with his family.

...many Venezuelans held out hope that through a negotiated exit the socialist-inspired administration might step aside and let Mr. González, a soft-spoken former diplomat, assume power.

His departure on Saturday narrowed that slim possibility even further. And it came as Venezuelan security forces surrounded the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas where six top opposition leaders have been taking shelter since March...

On Sunday, the opposition released an audio recording of the candidate explaining his decision to flee the country.

“I wanted to inform you that this morning, I arrived in Madrid,” Mr. González said. “My departure from Caracas was surrounded by episodes of pressure, coercion and threats of not allowing my departure. I trust that soon we will continue the struggle to achieve freedom and the recovery of democracy in Venezuela.”

Machado said that Gonzalez had left because his life was in danger. She remains in hiding though it's entirely possible she will wind up in prison if she's found.

The opposition had tried to do everything by the rules, but so long as Maduro is in power, it's a game of Calvinball. There's only one decision that could have prevented all of this and that's one they made more than a decade ago, as this commenter at the NY Times pointed out.

The people of Venezuela, like others, made a tragic, future changing choice when they believed and voted for the "fine sounding" promises of Chavez and communism ... They voted away democracy so willingly and now must live with the consequences and the price it will cost if they decide that want to regain those freedoms one day.

Venezuela will never be free so long as Maduro has the backing of the military and the communist street thugs known as colectivos. No doubt all of them are on board because they are getting something out of the deal. We should keep the sanctions on Venezuela until it no longer has funds to continue this crooked enterprise they pretend is an elected government.