BUENOS AIRES: Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei on Saturday on a regional tour to drum up support ahead of President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term.

Venezuelan authorities have offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to the capture of Gonzalez Urrutia, who insists he beat Maduro at the polls in July and is recognized by the United States as Venezuela’s “president-elect.”

The 75-year-old fled to Spain in September after being threatened with arrest by Maduro’s government, but has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in as president on January 10, when Maduro is due to be inaugurated. Gonzalez Urrutia flew into Buenos Aires on Friday night from Madrid, former Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, who also lives in exile in Madrid and was in the Argentine capital as part of the delegation, told AFP.

Strict security measures put in place for his arrival meant that a convoy of cars with tinted windows was all that could be seen of his delegation. Gonzalez Urrutia was due to be received by Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who has called Nicolas Maduro a “criminal dictator,” at the president’s offices on Saturday morning.

The opposition figure has called on Venezuelans in Buenos Aires to rally in the central Plaza de Mayo. He is then expected to travel to Uruguay to meet President Luis Lacalle Pou and Foreign Minister Omar Paganini on Saturday afternoon. Gonzalez Urrutia is also expected to travel to Panama on Wednesday, according to local media, and is due to visit the Dominican Republic on January 9, according to the Dominican presidency.

Wanted posters

Venezuelan police published a photo of the previously little-known ex-diplomat on social media Thursday with the word “wanted” under the image. Judicial sources confirmed to AFP that the poster will be displayed at airports and police checkpoints across the country.

Venezuela declared Maduro the winner of a third six-year term in the July vote but the opposition cried foul, saying it has detailed polling station numbers that show Gonzalez Urrutia won handily. The government has resisted intense pressure at home and abroad to release vote results that prove its claim of victory. Street protests erupted after the election and degenerated into clashes with police, with 28 people dead, 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested. Maduro is a former bus driver hand-picked by the late socialist icon Hugo Chavez to succeed him upon his death in 2013.

He has overseen the oil-rich country’s decline into economic ruin and been accused of acting like a dictator as he cracks down on dissent and clings to power. Only a handful of countries, including Venezuelan ally Russia, have recognized Maduro as the winner of the July election. Argentina does not recognize Maduro’s reelection, alongside the United States, European Union and several other Latin American countries. — AFP