and a Venezuelan court is issuing an arrest warrant for opposition leader edmundo Gonzalez accusing him of forgery of legal documents and sabotage this comes as president Nicholas Maduro is cracking down on any opposition to his widely disputed election win in July dozens of people have been killed and thousands arrested during protests in the wake of his reelection after the tall shared by the opposition showed Gonzalez beat Maduro ABC's llama Hassan and ABC News senior National policy reporter an flare join me now for more llama the US the EU and most South American countries have refused
to recognize Nicholas Maduro as the president because he never disclosed evidence of these results so what's the latest on his Crackdown and what is he saying about this arrest warrant now for Gonzalez yeah hey Diane you're absolutely right those countries that you mentioned say that they will not recognize Nicholas maduro's having won the election they say that they want to see detailed voting tallies they are calling for full transparency the opposition leader edmundo Gonzalez whom the us as you rightly said recognizing uh Rec is recognized as winning the most votes uh the opposition Alliance did
publish voting data online which it says shows that he won the election by a huge margin of more than 30% now this information has led to Gonzalez's arrest warrant and according to the public prosecutor he is accused of serious crimes including the uh document falsification in instigation of Disobedience and system sabotage and for weeks from Top government officials uh they have been saying that Gonzalez and other members of the opposition should go to jail and I think what is clear is that this is just another way of the government cracking down on any sort of
dissent in the country Diane and this comes after the US Department of Justice seized a plane owned by Maduro which is the Venezuelan equivalent to Air Force One basically the department says that plane was illegally purched through a shell company and smuggled out of the US so what's the latest on that and how significant is this move yeah you know we heard from the justice department yesterday that this plane has been since moved to Florida uh it was found in the Dominican Republic of course as you mentioned purchased through the shell company it's a $13
million plane now foreign forfeiture Is Not Unusual the US does this when they believe that a country is in violation of uh sanctions that they put in place but you know I've never heard of it actually happening with a plane and certainly not as you mentioned with a president's plane Air Force One I think the significance of this is very clear the US not uh mincing words when they say you know we do not believe that he is a legitimate elected leader uh they've also accused him of Narco terrorism uh criminal drug trafficking there's a
long list uh that the US accuses Maduro of um and they're simply saying we're tightening the screws and and we want to put an end to this simply saying we don't believe he should be in power Diane and llama this warrant for Gonzalez's arrest was issued after after he failed to appear before prosecutors three times can he fight this what options does he have right now yeah look Diane in short no he cannot fight this because as you rightly said he did fail to appear before prosecutors three times in a row to answer questions on
those charges in relation to the election and the arrest warrant was then issued and according to some lawyers who the Reuters news agency have spoken to they said that the uh law does not allow those over 70 years old to serve sentences in jail and Gonzalez just turned 75 years old which would mean uh or could mean rather that he would be placed under house arrest I think it is important to mention at this point that the opposition has always denied any wrongdoing Diane and what do these developments mean for US policy on Venezuela well
it's certainly one of the concerns that the Biden Administration has is curbing this migration um up through the southern border with the US and Mexico and a lot of those immigrants are coming from Venezuela because of the domestic situation there so the US believing that if they have a more stable power um in Venezuela that that people it could curb the flow of migration from Venezuela so it's very important to them but you know look the number one thing that the Biden Administration is saying with this is that we cannot allow these crimes to stand
so again they're tightening the screws on this they're making clear that the Venezuelan president is not out of their reach and they'll continue to do this all right Lama Hassan and flarity thank you and I want to bring in senior fellow for the center for Global development Danny Bahar for more on this Danny thanks for joining us how significant are these developments and what do you see happening next in Venezuela well I hope it's the beginning of the International Community doing everything they can do to put all the pressure possible on this regime who blatant
stole the elections to give up power and to commit to a democratic transition and uh what I think we should expect to be next is perhaps uh more of these type of um of actions perhaps more sanctions to the people who are running the country ER recklessly and even uh an appearance by the international criminal court against Maduro and his cronies so what role does the US play here can we expect to see more assets seized after They seized uh maduro's plane I I I think us should play a leading role here and and in
part is because I think during the past few years the US has been trying to use a lot of carrots uh in the Venezuelan situation trying to Le some negotiations trying to concede um in some ways to incentivize um Maduro to actually go for elections and and to allow for a peaceful transition but that was done that happened already the elections happened the opposition won uh based on all the evidence we have have and now they're completely refusing to do what needs to be done so now I think it's time for the US to to
lead with with with the sticks and leave the carrots aside because it seems like the carots didn't really work here so can the US face any legal consequences for this and how do you see that part of this going look I think I think that there's many tools um I don't think that there's any I think the US should lead by conviction um H this is a very important uh country in the hemisphere that as the colle were saying before um is the source of of the largest Refugee crisis in the world there's there's about
8 million Venezuelans who have left the country that's 15% of the population some series said that another 40% would be thinking of leaving the country if um if Maduro stays in power that that could make it the largest Refugee crisis since World War II um in the world so so I think really the International Community has to stand together and think about a strategy that that that will be effective in keep putting all the pressure possible on this regime um to H step up and to give up power because the Venezuelan people on their own
they have shown All The Bravery of doing things the way that should be done but the country is kidnapped um by the by Maduro his cronies using all the possible institutions to to crack down on on every possible disident and and we need the Venezuelan need needs International Community in the US to lead that effort for other countries watching what's happening in Venezuela now and and has been for the past few years and decades what lessons do you think should be learned here well I think it's important to understand that a country can be very
strong and its institutions can be very strong but that can also be destroyed quite quickly um this is not something that started today or yesterday it's something that started when Ugo Chavez came to power in 1999 and they've worked for years to destroy all the institutions um in a way that will serve them it will serve the the the the presidency and and and and the and the people in power so that they will be able to steal elections they will be able to steal many other things the the wealth of the country so I
think it's important to H for the people to be very wary um of populists who are coming and promising things um at the expense of destroying the institutions the Democratic institutions of countries all right senior fellow for the center for Global development Danny Bahar Danny thank you
