Venezuela Targets New Opposition Leaders With Interpol Warrants

Facts

• Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab revealed in a briefing on Monday that Nicolás Maduro's government has requested an "international red alert" to Interpol that asks it to arrest three new opposition leaders who currently live in exile in Spain.
• This comes as a court of the Bolivarian Republic has issued arrest warrants for the recently-appointed president of Venezuela's opposition legislature Dinorah Figuera and her two vice-presidents, Auristela Vásquez and Marianela Fernández.
• The three opposition leaders face charges of money laundering, treason, and impersonating public officials as Caracas argues that they could not proclaim themselves as members of a so-called parliamentary commission because their term as lawmakers ended in 2020.
• This all-female, multi-party team was chosen on Thursday by politicians elected to the National Assembly in 2015 to lead the symbolic shadow legislature to the Maduro-controlled National Assembly after Juan Guaidó was voted out from his role as "interim president."
• The then opposition-led National Assembly stopped recognizing Maduro as president in 2019 and appointed Guaidó as the country's "interim president" in accordance with the constitutional order of succession. But a boycott of the 2020 legislative elections left the body under Maduro's control.
• Ahead of the presidential elections tentatively scheduled for 2024, the opposition will hold a primary in June to choose a candidate among many leaders that are either barred from politics or living abroad to avoid alleged government harassment.

Sources: France24, Al Jazeera, Tele Sur, NBC, Washington Post, and Reuters.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Tele Sur. This international red alert is both justifiable and necessary. These former lawmakers are part of a US-backed criminal gang that has consistently impersonated national officials abroad to carry out several illegal activities and appropriate assets belonging to the Venezuelan nation over the past years.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Atlantic. The issuance of arrest warrants for Venezuela's new opposition leaders exposes that — the Donald Trump-backed — Guaidó's formula to topple Maduro has backfired because he is now stronger and more secure in power than ever. That's why the Biden administration is seeking a policy reset to encourage Latin American countries to engage and find a solution to this impasse.