Caracas, Jan 20 (EFE).- Mariana González, the daughter of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, denounced this Monday that she was the victim of 'extortion' to 'force' her father to 'abandon his fight' in exchange for the release of her husband, Rafael Tudares, who has been detained since January 2025. She added, however, that her husband, a lawyer by profession, 'reviewed his entire file and was able to verify that there was no evidence against him'. Therefore, she affirmed that the 30-year prison sentence imposed on Tudares 'constitutes an absolute violation of due process, the presumption of innocence, and the right to defense, enshrined in the Constitution and in international human rights treaties'. In June 2024, Mariana González stated that Tudares 'was unjustly trapped and is a victim' of a political conflict, which also led González Urrutia to go into exile in Spain in September 2024, from where he claims the presidency of Venezuela by asserting that he won the presidential elections. Tudares was arrested on January 7, 2025 - three days before the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for a third consecutive six-year term - when human rights defender Carlos Correa and opposition presidential candidate Enrique Márquez were also arrested, the latter two being released. 'None of what I have suffered is justice,' González said. 'I denounce that I was the victim of three episodes of extortion, coming from both people linked to the authorities of this country and from individuals related to the Church and from people who claimed to represent important organizations,' indicated Mariana González in a statement shared on her X account. She assured that on these three occasions 'there were witnesses' who 'entirely' heard everything that was said to her, and detailed that these 'extortions' were 'carried out in diplomatic headquarters (embassies), in spaces where the Archdiocese operates, and in offices of organizations that publicly claim to defend human rights'. 'This constitutes a pattern of coercion and indirect persecution against a civilian family, using deprivation of liberty as a mechanism for political and personal pressure, and even using institutional and diplomatic spaces that should be neutral and protective of rights,' she claimed. 'Being the son-in-law of Edmundo González Urrutia is not a crime.'
