Caracas.- Mariana González, the daughter of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, reported this Monday that a court agreed to proceed to trial for her husband, Rafael Tudares, for the alleged crimes of
“forgery, conspiracy, terrorism, association, legitimization and financing”, as -she specified- “State authorities” notified her.
Through a statement,
Mariana González detailed that on June 13th, a “telematic preliminary hearing” was held, in which a control court admitted the accusation that the Prosecutor’s Office brought against her husband and agreed that he go to trial for the six crimes attributed to him.
You may be interested in: Vice Mayor Leandro González highlights the social impact of “The Mayor’s Office in the Neighborhood” in SDN
Likewise, he continued, “the custodial measure was ratified” and “a substitute measure for the custodial measure, such as a reporting regime and a prohibition on leaving the country,” was denied to him.
Also, “Rodeo I prison” in Miranda state (north) was ratified as a detention center, although Tudares’ wife assured that last Saturday they “told her again”, without specifying who, “for the thirteenth time that Rafael is not there”.
“As of today, I don’t know directly where they really have him,” said the daughter of the opposition leader, who reiterated that her husband is in “forced disappearance.”
Likewise, Mariana González stated that she will not tire of “insisting and advocating for the innocence” of her husband and stressed that “it is not a crime” to be the son-in-law of the leader of the majority anti-Chavismo.
“Rafael is innocent and, as I was informed by the authorities themselves in January, the reason why he was arbitrarily detained in front of his children and is being unjustly kept in a situation of enforced disappearance is his family relationship by affinity with my father, Edmundo González Urrutia”, indicated Mariana González.
In the opinion of the daughter of the former presidential candidate, the legal process against her husband “is an arbitrary, unjust measure that violates human rights” and -she added- Tudares, her two children and she are “the victims of a political conflict” of which they are not a part.
“We do not participate in politics, we do not belong to any political party, and we do not influence the political decisions of the different political actors in the country,” said the exiled opposition leader’s daughter.
Recently, Mariana González reiterated that Tudares has “nothing to do with the political conflict that keeps him deprived of his freedom”, alluding to the crisis that erupted in the country after the opposition’s major coalition denounced fraud in the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as re-elected president in the July 2024 elections.
For her, Tudares “was unjustly trapped and is a victim” of this conflict, which also led González Urrutia to go into exile in Spain last September, from where he claims the Presidency of Venezuela, stating that he won the July elections.
The arrest of Tudares took place on January 7 – three days before Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term – the same day that human rights defender Carlos Correa – already released – and former anti-Chavista presidential candidate Enrique Márquez were also arrested.
