Venezuela's top prosecutor announces criminal probe against opposition leaders González, Machado

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s top prosecutor on Monday 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.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab's statement tied the investigation directly to a written appeal the two members of the opposition sent hours earlier about Maduro and the demonstrators who have come out in force to defend their votes in the July 28 election.

Saab, in a written announcement posted on the social media site X, said the duo “falsely announced a winner of the presidential election other than the one proclaimed by the National Electoral Council, the only body qualified to do so" and they openly incited “police and military officials to disobey the laws.”

Gonzalez’s and Machado’s written appeal shows the alleged commission of various crimes including usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information to cause fear and conspiracy, Saab said.

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.

“We won this election without any doubt. It was an electoral avalanche,” the two continued. “Now it's up to all of us to respect the voice of the people.”

Authorities have declared Maduro the victor in last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. The opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide showing it won.

Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents and at a rally in Caracas he pledged to detain more people and send them to prison. The post-electoral uprising has also claimed at least 11 lives, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based human rights group.

The Venezuela-based human rights organization Provea, in a report issued Monday analyzing the post-election climate, concluded that the government’s response in silencing people’s discontent has been “through the disproportionate use of force” that has resulted in the deaths of protesters and “the open coordinated action between security forces and groups of armed civilians in favor of Nicolás Maduro to calm the protests" which has led to an increase in arbitrary arrests.

The organization reported that based on figures announced by the Attorney General's Office last week, the number of arrests against real or perceived government opponents is equivalent to about 42% “of the total number of arbitrary arrests recorded by Provea between April and August 2017, the most important cycle of protests in the country since 1989.”

González and Machado in their missive called on Venezuelans with family members serving in the security forces to urge their loved ones not to attack protesters and not obey illegal orders. It said it would offer “guarantees” to soldiers who follow the constitution even while promising there would be no impunity for those behind abuses and following illegal orders.

Both González, a former diplomat, and Machado — who was barred by the government from running — have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up.

As Venezuelans fight Maduro on the streets, pressure is also building internationally for the Venezuelan government to publish the full breakdown of the electoral results.

But so far, Maduro has instead asked the country's supreme court — which like all institutions in Venezuela is packed with loyalists — to review any claims of irregularities.

“Respect for popular sovereignty is what moves us to defend the transparency of the (election) results," Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Monday in a press conference alongside fellow leftist President Gabriel Boric of Chile.

Boric, who cast doubt on Maduro’s victory claim in an unexpectedly strong statement within hours of Venezuela’s July 28 election, told reporters that he and Lula discussed the situation in Venezuela on Monday, without elaborating. The leaders did not take questions and their carefully worded statements signaled how leftist leaders in the region are gingerly trying to show respect for Venezuela's sovereignty while voicing doubts about the official results.

A few of Maduro’s staunch allies — including Russia, China and Cuba — have applauded his victory. On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held a telephone call with Maduro and reiterated his congratulations and “condemned any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs,” Pezeshkian’s office said.

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AP Writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

Homes cover a hill in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People hang out on a street of Catia neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A public bus traverses the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People shop at a street market in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People shop at a street market in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A woman in a poncho protects herself from rain in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A man rests under a bridge with religious statues in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A soldier carries chairs as election workers prepare polling stations in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. The presidential election is set for July 28. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A voter exits a polling station guarded by military personnel during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

President Nicolas Maduro speaks to supporters during a government rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Military personnel wait for their turn to vote in the presidential elections at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

National Guards work to disperse protesters the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

National guards ride on a truck in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, July 26, 2024. The presidential election is set for July 28. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado holds a national flag while waving to supporters as she arrives for a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A soldier guards the entrance of an open voting center during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Residents face National Guards as they block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A National Guard officer addresses voters lining up at the Andres Bello School as opposition poll watchers argue they are not being allowed to enter the voting center during the presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Military personnel help assist an elderly voter during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Residents try to block a street to protest the official results the day after the presidential election as National Guards work to remove them in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A union leader freed from prison Monday after serving time for her part in a strike against Cambodia’s biggest casino has vowed to continue the labor action until justice is done.

Chhim Sithar was sentenced in May 2023 to two years' imprisonment for incitement to commit a felony, including time served before her conviction, in connection with the strike against the NagaWorld casino, the longest such labor action in the country's history.

She had been leading a strike of hundreds of workers that began in December 2021 to protest mass layoffs and alleged union-busting at the casino in the capital, Phnom Penh, and was arrested and charged after a January 2022 demonstration of dismissed employees who were demanding to be rehired.

NagaWorld in late 2021 had fired 373 employees during financial struggles related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to The Associated Press at her home shortly after her release, Chhim Sithar vowed to continue leading the strike.

"About our advocacy fighting for union rights at NagaWorld, we will continue holding strike action until we get a solution. That’s the position we have determined since the first strike,” Chhim Sithar said, sitting on the floor surrounded by relatives.

“Unfortunately, as of today, after nearly three years, our workers have still not gotten justice. Therefore, as long as there’s no justice, our struggle continues,” she said.

After Chhim Sithar’s arrest, some dismissed workers continued to hold regular protests, appealing for her release and to get their jobs back. However, the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training announced in December 2022 that more than 200 others had accepted compensation under the labor law and dropped their demands.

“Despite relentless efforts by authorities to suppress the strike — including sexual harassment, physical assaults, and judicial harassment — the LRSU strike continues in Phnom Penh,” the Cambodian human rights organization LICADHO noted Monday.

NagaWorld is owned by a company controlled by the family of late Malaysian billionaire Chen Lip Keong. The company received its casino license in 1994 and the property is a huge integrated hotel-casino entertainment complex.

Previous labor union actions in Cambodia were usually at factories in outlying areas or in industrial estates in other provinces. The protest by the NagaWorld workers in the capital was unusually high-profile and drew police action that was sometimes violent.

Last year, the U.S. State Department named Chhim Sithar among 10 recipients of its annual Human Rights Defender Award. She was described by the then-U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia W. Patrick Murphy as “a courageous and tenacious labor union leader who peacefully advocates for the rights of Cambodian workers.”

Cambodia’s government has long been accused of using the judicial system to persecute critics and political opponents. Prime Minister Hun Manet succeeded his father last year after Hun Sen ruled for four decades, but there have been few signs of political liberalization.

Chhim Sithar, right, a union leader being freed from prison after serving time for her part in a strike against the country’s biggest casino, speaks to her supporters at a club on the outskirts of Phnom Penh Cambodia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Chhim Sithar, a union leader being freed from prison after serving time for her part in a strike against the country’s biggest casino, speaks to her supporters at a club on the outskirts of Phnom Penh Cambodia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Chhim Sithar, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, gestures as she meets her supporters in a club at the outskirts of Phnom Penh Cambodia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after the union leader was freed from prison on Monday after serving time for her part in a strike against the country's biggest casino. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Chhim Sithar, second from right, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, sits near her mother, center, as she meets her staff members in her sister's home at the outskirts of Phnom Penh Cambodia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after the prominent union leader freed from prison on Monday after serving time for her part in a strike against the country’s biggest casino. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Chhim Sithar, second from right, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, meets with her mother, center, and her staff members in her sister's home at the outskirts of Phnom Penh Cambodia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after the prominent union leader freed from prison on Monday after serving time for her part in a strike against the country’s biggest casino. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Chhim Sithar, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, smiles as she meets her staff members in her sister's home at the outskirts of Phnom Penh Cambodia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, after the prominent union leader freed from prison on Monday after serving time for her part in a strike against the country’s biggest casino. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)