The Parliament of Venezuelacontrolled by the ruling Chavismo, asked, this Thursday 17th, the Public Ministry to open a criminal investigation against an electoral leader who denounced “irregularities” in the re-election of the president Nicolas Maduro.
The Legislature approved the dismissal as a member of the board of directors of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Juan Carlos Delpino, who fled the country after the presidential elections on July 28, and requested the MP to “immediately initiate” a “criminal investigation” against he.
“Delpino is part of a conspiracy,” said Jorge Rodríguez, president of Congress.
The CNE proclaimed Maduro re-elected for a third six-year term (2025-2031), but has not yet presented the detailed vote count, as required by law.
The opposition denounces that there was fraud and published on a website copies of the voting minutes with which they claim the triumph of the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who went into exile in Spain after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Post-election protests left 27 people dead in the South American country, two of them military personnel, and more than 2,400 detained.
Delpino “is responsible for the murder of 27 Venezuelans and has to pay,” said Rodríguez, who accused the former electoral director of crimes such as treason and criminal association.
“The only criminal association that can be identified, without fear of making a mistake, is the one that misgoverns the country, whose actors are those who did not enjoy popular support”, reacted Delpino this Thursday on X.
The Legislature also called for the confiscation of Delpino’s assets, whom Rodríguez linked to Rafael Rodríguez, former Oil Minister close to the late President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), who broke with Maduro and was accused of corruption.
On August 26, in a statement he published on social media abroad, Delpino questioned the results announced by the CNE.
“Everything that happened before, during and after the presidential election indicates the seriousness of the lack of transparency and veracity of the results”, wrote the former electoral director, who, however, stated that he was not present in the vote totaling room during the election day.
“The only truth he said (…): ‘I wasn’t there. I can describe what the underside of the mattress looked like on the bed where I was hiding,’” joked Rodríguez.
