EU tells Venezuela to stop 'judicial intimidation' of opposition

BRUSSELS

The European Union on Tuesday told Venezuela's government to stop targeting opposition leaders after authorities opened a criminal probe against the main challengers disputing the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro.

"This needs to stop. We are calling on the authorities to stop this, this campaign of intimidation of the opposition and judicial intimidation," EU spokesman Peter Stano said.

Venezuela’s top prosecutor on Aug. 5 announced a criminal investigation against the opposition’s presidential candidate Edmundo González and its leader Maria Corina Machado over their call on the armed forces to abandon their support for President Nicolás Maduro and to stop repressing demonstrators.

The armed forces are traditionally the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela. But they’ve shown no signs of ditching Maduro even in the face of credible evidence presented by the opposition that it trounced the self-proclaimed socialist at the polls by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

González and Machado called on rank and file members of the security forces to rethink their loyalty to Maduro.

“We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to put themselves on the side of the people and their families,” the two wrote in a long message.

Authorities have declared Maduro the victor in last week’s election. 

The opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide showing it won.