Chavismo issues a new arrest warrant against the opposition Julio Borges

Julio Borges, in a photograph from 2020. Anadolu Agency (Getty Images)

The Venezuelan attorney general, Tarek William Saab, publicly announced a new arrest warrant against Julio Borges, founding leader of the Primero Justicia party and one of the fundamental leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, today in exile, accused of crimes of "treason, conspiracy and criminal association."

This is the third judicial measure that the Chavista regime has filed against Borges.

On this occasion, Saab appealed to some statements offered by the opposition leader Leopoldo López, via zoom, to a group of journalists from the Foreign Press Association in Venezuela, APEX, in which, requested by the journalists, he recreates part of the circumstances of the failed military attempt on April 30, 2019. At that time, the Venezuelan opposition tried to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro after a long period of popular protests under the accusation of having orchestrated electoral fraud the previous year, and with the then president of parliament, Juan Guaidó, in the streets, demanding an end to the usurpation of functions.

In this appearance before the press, López argues with Borges and other opposition politicians regarding the responsibility of the leadership in the failure of that attempt to restore democracy in the country, which has been harshly criticized in sectors by the opposition itself throughout this weather.

"Today we want to inform you that, in view of the appearance of new incriminating evidence, we have requested an arrest warrant against Julio Borges Junyent, for his participation in the coup attempt on April 30, 2019," Saab said. , who added: “In the framework of the monitoring that this Public Ministry makes of the information related to the illegal activities of the self-proclaimed interim Government, a video released on January 13 was collected in which the fugitive Leopoldo López indicates that Julio Borges had a direct and essential participation in the events of April 30, 2019.”

Borges, a 53-year-old lawyer with a Christian Democratic tendency, was chancellor of the recently terminated interim government.

Along with his party, he has been one of the promoters of the recent dissolution of this instance and has maintained political discrepancies with López regarding strategies to transcend Chavista hegemony and control of the opposition strategy.

With the votes of Primero Justicia (Borges's party), Acción Democrática and Un Nuevo Tiempo, the Venezuelan Parliament elected in 2015 modified the so-called Statute of Transition to Democracy, removing the Interim Presidency of Juan Guaidó from office and terminating his groundbreaking discourse and unaware of the current political reality, seeking to strengthen the electoral route of the democratic forces and the political dialogue with Chavismo in Mexico for the 2024 presidential elections.

And although the United States has relaxed some of its positions regarding the Chavista regime and has granted some multinationals licenses to exploit Venezuelan oil, the atmosphere of the negotiations in Mexico is currently slowing down.

Washington has yet to guarantee the release of Venezuelan assets frozen abroad after the 2019 political crisis, which Maduro hoped to be able to use in the short term.

Maduro has already publicly made a couple of claims to the United States for this circumstance, while rumors grow that, on this occasion, the disputed frozen Venezuelan resources will not be released to Caracas.

Washington, for its part, has once again declared that the sanctions against Maduro will continue "until democracy returns to Venezuela."

Julio Borges, on Twitter, stated that the cause against him is the "invoice for having led the international pressure against Maduro, for having broken the TSJ ruling that produced a coup against parliament and led to months of protests."

Meanwhile, his party commented in a statement: "The policy of the Maduro regime has always been to persecute those who think differently, ours will always be the fight for freedom and democracy in Venezuela."

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