Venezuelan Government Offers $100,000 Reward for Info on Opposition’s Presidential Candidate

Venezuela's Edmundo González Urrutia waves at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Dec. 17, 2024. Pascal Bastien/AP Photo

Venezuela’s government is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of exiled opposition candidate Edmundo González, who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s election.

Thursday’s offer of a reward for González comes just days before Maduro, who leads the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, is set to begin his third term in office.

González fled Venezuela for Spain in September 2024 amid an investigation linked to the country’s presidential election in July.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for González after he refused to respond to summonses to testify about an opposition-led website that published ballot box-level tallies, claiming he had easily won the election.

The arrest warrant accused González of usurping official functions, forging public documents, instigating public disobedience, conspiracy against the state, and sabotage.

“A $100,000 reward is offered to anyone who provides information about his location,” the press office of the country’s Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigations Agency said in a social media post on Thursday.

Alongside the post was a photo of González, 75, in the style of a wanted poster, and instructions on how to turn him in to authorities.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council and the country’s top court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice—both closely aligned with Maduro—declared him the winner of July’s elections, with a narrow 52 percent of the vote.

The opposition has disputed the results and accused Maduro of rigging the elections while declaring González the winner.

González’s election victory has also been recognized by the White House, which has accused Maduro of refusing to recognize “the will of the Venezuelan people” and condemned what it said was his “brutal repression of those defending the true results of the election.”

Blinken Praises Opposition’s ‘Resilience’

“Maduro and his representatives continue to ignore calls from their own people and the international community for transparency, and instead use brute force to silence dissenters,” a senior U.S. administration official said on a call with reporters in November.

The official also said Maduro and his party have failed to present evidence that supports “any shred of Maduro’s false claim to victory.”

Despite the pending arrest warrant, González has vowed to return to Venezuela to be sworn in as president instead of Maduro later this month.

Just days before the reward for information leading to González’s arrest was announced, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with him and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Argentina.

During the call, Blinken “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to supporting the will of the Venezuelan people as expressed at the ballot box, the peaceful restoration of democracy in Venezuela, and the release of all unjustly detained political prisoners.”

Blinken also reiterated that the United States “stands in solidarity with the international community in expressing our condemnation of Maduro’s anti-democratic actions.”

He also praised the democratic opposition’s resilience and the Venezuelan people’s “commitment to democracy in the face of repression and adversity,” according to the statement.

The statement referred to González as Venezuela’s “president-elect.”

Tom Ozimek, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.