FILE PHOTO: Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez looks on on the day he casts his vote in the country's presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File Photo
BRASILIA (Reuters) - The arrest warrant issued for Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez is "very concerning" and "the wrong thing to do," Brazil's top foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim said on Tuesday.
Amorim told Reuters in an interview it was undeniable that authoritarianism was escalating in Venezuela, but reinforced Brazil's hope for a solution to the political crisis in the neighboring country.
According to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's diplomatic advisor, if Venezuelan authorities were to go through with Gonzalez's arrest, "it would be a political arrest, and we do not accept political prisoners."
Venezuela's attorney general's office said on Monday that a court had issued an arrest warrant for oppositionist Gonzalez, accusing him of conspiracy and other crimes amid a dispute over whether he or President Nicolas Maduro won a July election.
"The election situation in Venezuela is not resolved, we do not see victory for one side or the other," Amorim said, maintaining what has been Brazil's diplomatic position ever since the contested vote.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Luana Maria Benedito; Editing by Gabriel Araujo)
