The revolutionary prosecutor Tarek William Saab has ordered the arrest of the political team closest to the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, accused of being “stateless people” immersed in a kind of transnational conspiracy. “These people direct destabilizing and conspiratorial actions, sponsored by a group of people who are cowardly abroad, without ceasing their desire for immemorial hatred against the people of Venezuela,” said the prosecutor.
Those named are the leaders of Vente Venezuela, Machado’s party, Henry Alviarez (national coordinator), Claudia Macero (head of communication) and Pedro Urruchurtu (international relations coordinator). Also on the list are Roberto Abdul, in charge of the Súmate organization, directed in the past by the new leader, and David Smolansky, former envoy of the Organization of American States (OAS) to the migration crisis and who is currently part of Machado’s circle from exile.
“It was possible to identify financing from money laundering of international organizations and foreign companies such as ExxonMobil to obviously conspire against the development of the consultative referendum for Essequibo,” Saab stammered in his public appearance. In addition to treason, they are also accused of conspiracy, money laundering and criminal association.
The strategy is very similar to the one followed against the former acting president of the democratic Parliament, Juan Guaidó: weaken Machado with the attack against her closest team but without touching her, at least for the moment.
“If they think that with this they are going to stop us, it is quite the opposite,” reacted the great winner of the opposition primaries. The opposition leader announced in parallel that at the moment she does not plan to resort to the small loophole opened by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) for her electoral rehabilitation.
“The regime has not fulfilled its commitments, it is not trustworthy,” stressed the candidate, who has insisted that she cannot impose any appeal before the TSJ, the main hammer against the opposition, because she has not even received notification of the sanction issued by the Comptroller’s Office last June.
The list of those identified by the prosecutor also includes important opposition leaders in exile and former revolutionary ministers, today critical of Maduro. Voluntad Popular (VP), a party allied to Machado, includes its main leader, the former political prisoner Leopoldo López, in addition to Guaidó, Carlos Vecchio, Yon Goicoechea and Léster Toledo.
Julio Borges, exiled in Spain, appears in Primero Justicia. And as important leaders in the times of Hugo Chávez, and also in the first stage of Maduro, Rafael Ramírez, former vice president, and former minister Andrés Izarra are identified as traitors.
“Accusing me of being from Exxon! What a level of desperation,” Izarra ironically said from Europe.
