Venezuela’s so­cial­ist gov­ern­ment has or­dered the ar­rest of three ex­iled for­mer law­mak­ers at the fore­front of re­newed ef­forts to un­seat Pres­i­dent Nico­las Maduro.

Di­no­rah Figuera leads an all-fe­male team se­lect­ed last week by fel­low op­po­si­tion politi­cians to lead the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly that was vot­ed in­to of­fice in 2015. The op­po­si­tion-con­trolled body is wide­ly con­sid­ered Venezuela’s last de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed in­sti­tu­tion, and al­though its five-year man­date end­ed in late 2020, it con­tin­ues to func­tion as a sym­bol­ic shad­ow to Maduro’s rub­ber-stamp­ing Na­tion­al As­sem­bly.

On Mon­day, Maduro’s At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Tarek William Saab an­nounced that pros­e­cu­tors had or­dered the ar­rest of Figuera and her two deputies on charges of trea­son, mon­ey laun­der­ing and im­per­son­at­ing pub­lic of­fi­cials.

How­ev­er, the ar­rest or­der is un­like­ly to be car­ried out. All three women, like many of Maduro’s op­po­nents, have fled Venezuela in re­cent years, fear­ing re­tal­i­a­tion. Figuera, a sur­geon by train­ing, lives in Spain.

In Jan­u­ary 2019, the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly vot­ed to stop rec­og­niz­ing Maduro as pres­i­dent af­ter sev­er­al top op­po­nents were barred from run­ning against him. It then ap­point­ed Juan Guaidó to be the na­tion’s “in­ter­im pres­i­dent,” in ac­cor­dance with the or­der of suc­ces­sion out­lined in Venezuela’s con­sti­tu­tion. More than 60 coun­tries quick­ly rec­og­nized him as Venezuela’s le­git­i­mate leader.

The op­po­si­tion then boy­cotted the 2020 leg­isla­tive elec­tions, leav­ing the suc­ces­sor Na­tion­al As­sem­bly firm­ly un­der Maduro’s con­trol.

Figuera had been an un­known back­bench law­mak­er elect­ed along­side Guaidó. She surged to the front of the op­po­si­tion’s ef­forts to un­seat Maduro as part of an in­ter­nal putsch against the be­lea­guered Guaidó, whose fail­ure to shake Maduro’s grip on pow­er has frus­trat­ed many Venezue­lans.

Maduro al­ly Jorge Ro­driguez, the head of the pro-gov­ern­ment Na­tion­al As­sem­bly, cel­e­brat­ed the an­nounce­ment of the ar­rest or­ders, call­ing the 2015 Na­tion­al As­sem­bly a “band of thieves” for their at­tempts to win con­trol of Venezuela’s ex­ten­sive over­seas oil as­sets, in­clud­ing Hous­ton-based re­fin­ery Cit­go.

Figuera said the ar­rest or­der won’t in­tim­i­date her and oth­ers from car­ry­ing out their role of pro­tect­ing Venezuela’s over­seas as­sets.

“We’ll con­tin­ue with even greater strength,” she said Mon­day dur­ing an on­line press con­fer­ence, her first since emerg­ing as an op­po­si­tion leader.

Mean­while, a se­nior U.S. State De­part­ment of­fi­cial said the Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion stands with those “coura­geous­ly de­fend­ing Venezue­lan democ­ra­cy.”

“Fur­ther at­tacks on the op­po­si­tion ... im­pede de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­lu­tions,” Bri­an Nichols, the As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary of State for the west­ern hemi­sphere, said in a state­ment on Twit­ter. “All ef­forts must be fo­cused on chart­ing a path to free and fair elec­tions in 2024.”

CARA­CAS, Venezuela (AP)