Venezuela is offering a $100,000 reward for the arrest of an exiled opposition candidate

The Venezuelan government has offered a $100,000 (£81,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of exiled opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.

He fled the country in September and was granted political asylum in Spain after Venezuelan authorities ordered his arrest, accusing González of conspiracy and forgery.

Gonzalez has vowed to return to Venezuela before the inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro next Friday, accusing the government of rigging the vote.

Shortly after the award was announced, Gonzalez said he was traveling to Argentina to begin a tour of Latin America, where he will meet President Javier Millais, a fierce critic of Maduro, on Saturday.

UN Human Rights Committee ordered Venezuela to “refrain from destroying” voting records from the presidential elections in July 2024.

The vote counts – a detailed official breakdown of the votes from each polling station – have been at the heart of the dispute over who won the election.

The government’s National Electoral Council (CNE) declared incumbent President Maduro the winner, but failed to provide the results of the vote to back up its claim.

The opposition, which has collected and published more than 80% of the vote counts with the help of accredited election witnesses, says this shows that its candidate, Gonzalez, won a majority.

Gonzalez was not very well known in Venezuela when he registered as a candidate in the country’s presidential elections back in March.

He had never run for public office before and was not even widely known in opposition circles.

But months after he decided to run for the top job, the reserved former diplomat has overtaken Maduro in opinion polls.

Over the past decade, the rift between supporters of the government and the opposition has deepened in Venezuela.

González’s conciliatory tone during the presidential campaign contrasted sharply with that of Maduro, who warned of a “bloodbath” if González won.

Re-election of Maduro in 2018 was widely rejected as neither free nor fair.