The UN Secretary General’s message on Venezuela

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is “closely following” the situation in Venezuela, “including the arrest warrant against opposition leader Edmundo González,” his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

The Maduro government ordered the arrest of González Urrutia, opposition candidate in the July 28 presidential elections, for six crimes related to his complaint of fraud in the elections, in which Maduro was declared the winner.

In his daily press conference, Dujarric added a call to the Venezuelan government “to fully respect human rights,” adding that “no one should be subject to arrest or “arbitrary detention.”

Guterres also called on all parties, “especially political leaders and their supporters,” to avoid using inflammatory language in the electoral dispute.

The Secretary General has spoken out on several occasions to demand the detailed publication of the electoral records, but so far he has not recognized Nicolás Maduro’s victory or sent him any congratulations.

But when asked last week whether that meant Maduro’s government would lose its recognition at the UN, the spokesman said that this was not a matter for the secretary-general but for member states.

Dujarric was also asked about the seizure of the Venezuelan presidential plane on Monday in the Dominican Republic at the request of the United States.

The official described it as “a bilateral matter between the United States and Venezuela,” without going into details.