Venezuela opposition adviser living at Argentine residence turned himself in, AG says

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By Vivian Sequera, Mayela Armas

CARACAS (Reuters) -One of the six Venezuelan opposition staffers who have been living at the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas has turned himself in to the attorney general’s office, the office said in a statement on Friday.

The staffers have been at the residence since warrants were issued for their arrests in March, part of what the opposition says is a fierce government crackdown on dissent before, during and after a disputed July election, which both President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition claim to have won.

Fernando Martinez Mottola, an adviser to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who herself is in hiding, came to the attorney general’s office voluntarily on Thursday, Attorney General Tarek Saab said in a statement posted on social media.

Martinez gave a declaration about the “violent, conspiratorial and destabilizing acts being organized from the aforementioned diplomatic location during recent months,” Saab said in the statement.

Saab and other officials regularly accuse the opposition of conspiring with countries such as the United States to commit terrorism, overthrow Maduro and attack Venezuela’s power grid.

The opposition has always denied the accusations and considers the attorney general’s office an instrument of Maduro.

Martinez is at his own home, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters overnight, without giving further details.

Martinez and five others have been accused of conspiracy. 

The Argentine residence is currently under Brazilian custody after Buenos Aires cut relations with Caracas over the election dispute. 

Maduro was declared the winner of the election by the electoral council and the country’s top court, though authorities have not offered ballot-box tallies of the votes.

The opposition published ballot-box tallies on a public website that it says show its contender, Edmundo Gonzalez, handily won the contest. Gonzalez has since fled to Spain.

Argentina granted asylum and safe passage to the six opposition members following the warrants, but Venezuela’s government has not allowed them to leave.

Colombia’s foreign minister has said negotiations are taking place to try to ensure safe passage for the six. But Ecuador said this week it would not allow its former Vice President Jorge Glas, an ally of Maduro, to leave jail, where he is serving a corruption sentence, as part of a deal.

Venezuela’s opposition, a number of Western countries and some international organizations have said the election was non-transparent, with some parties openly labeling the process fraudulent.

Brazil, whose President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has gradually increased his criticism of Maduro since the election, pledged when it took over management of the Argentine residence that it would look after the six.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Mayela ArmasWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Rod Nickel)