SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Steve Kerr's 90-year-old mother was among the thousands of residents evacuated from the raging wildfire in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
The Golden State Warriors coach said Tuesday night that his mom, Ann, had left her home in Pacific Palisades given the evacuation orders that affected tens of thousands of people.
“I want to send my thoughts and condolences to everybody in Los Angeles dealing with the fires,” Kerr said after a 114-98 loss to Miami. “My mom lives in Pacific Palisades. She had to evacuate.”
Kerr said Everett Dayton in Golden State's player development department grew up there had lost his family home in the picturesque area of Southern California, where extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside and aided the fire's spread.
Pacific Palisades borders Malibu about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of downtown LA. It includes hillside streets of tightly packed homes along winding roads nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and stretches down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean.
“Everything I'm seeing and reading is just terrifying what's happening down there,” Kerr said, “so just want to send thoughts to everyone who's going through the devastation of the fire. Obviously the game is secondary to that and to many things in life. Perspective is important.”
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Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, second from left, gestures toward referees during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gestures during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Edmundo González has become a beacon of hope for millions of Venezuelans. They want to call him president. He believes he won that office at the ballot box last year. The government of President Nicolás Maduro says he did not.
The stakes for Friday’s swearing-in of the man who will govern Venezuela for the next six years have never been higher in this century.
González had never imagined he would be carrying the weight of the main opposition faction, the Unitary Platform coalition. He had not even run for office before the July election.
A virtually unknown grandfather less than a year ago, he now has heard tens of thousands of people chant his name as loudly as they screamed “Freedom! Freedom!” at rallies across the South American country.
But González has paid the price for challenging the 25-year rule of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Under pressure, he has gone into exile. And on Tuesday, he said son-in-law Rafael Tudares had been kidnapped in the capital, Caracas.
“At what point did being related to Edmundo González Urrutia become a crime?” his daughter, Mariana González de Tudares, said in a statement that suggested the government was behind her husband’s disappearance.
The coalition of main opposition parties, in a statement, characterized it as a “forced disappearance for political reasons.” The government’s centralized press office did not respond to a request for comment.
González, 75, had been enjoying retirement after a career as a diplomat when the coalition selected him in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado. She had been blocked by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice from running for office after she swept the opposition’s October 2023 primary with more than 90% of the vote.
González had just returned to Caracas from a trip to Europe when opposition leaders presented him with the idea of becoming a candidate.
Before González joined Machado on the campaign trail, she became his surrogate, introducing him as an honest family man while showing the crowds a banner with his headshot.
González had begun his professional career as an aide to Venezuela’s ambassador in the United States. He had other postings in Belgium and El Salvador and served as ambassador to Algeria. His last post was ambassador to Argentina during the first years of the government of Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor and mentor.
More recently, González worked as an international relations consultant, writing about recent political developments in Argentina and authoring a historical work on Venezuela’s foreign minister during World War II.
“I have never participated in partisan politics of positions of elected office,” he told The Associated Press in May. “I accepted it with enormous responsibility and as a contribution on my part to the democratization of the country, to the process of trying to seek the understanding, reconciliation, of Venezuelans.”
His years as a diplomat in El Salvador and Algeria coincided with periods of armed conflicts in both countries. For a time, his whereabouts were tracked by locals in El Salvador, and he would get calls at home meant to intimidate him.
His subdued tone and poker face, forged as a diplomat, go against the usual image in Venezuela of boisterous politicians. Maduro and his allies have taken his demeanor as a sign of weakness and chastised him on national TV.
“Coward,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Monday, alleging without giving evidence that the retired diplomat was a CIA agent. “He has neither courage nor disposition.”
The dueling claims for the presidency are rooted in the election results. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner hours after polls closed, but unlike in previous presidential elections, they did not provide detailed vote counts. However, the opposition collected tally sheets from more than 80% of electronic voting machines, posted them online and said they showed González had won with twice as many votes as Maduro.
The U.S.-based Carter Center, invited by Maduro’s government to observe the election, has said the tally sheets published by the opposition are legitimate.
González left for exile in Spain in September after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of election results. The government last week announced a $100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.
But he has vowed to return to his homeland to take the oath of office Friday. Meanwhile, the ruling-party controlled National Assembly is ready to welcome Maduro for the swearing-in that would extend his 11-year presidency to 2031.
González, who has been recognized by several governments including the U.S. as Venezuela’s president-elect, has not said how he plans to return or wrest power from Maduro, whose ruling party controls all aspects of government.
He has been touring the Americas to try to rally support ahead of Friday's ceremony, tapping his diplomatic skills.
On Monday, González met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as with U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, President-elect Donald Trump’s designee to be national security adviser once Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
Hours after announcing Tudares’ kidnapping on Tuesday, González said he would travel to Panama next.
“We continue,” he wrote on X.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez waves a Venezuelan flag during a meeting with supporters in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
Edmundo Gonzalez, who represented Venezuela's main opposition coalition in the July presidential election, waves as he arrives to address a gathering of supporters outside of the Organization of American States, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A wanted sign of Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez is displayed on the list of departure flights at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, near Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
FILE - Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez attends a campaign event before the election in Caracas, Venezuela, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez ride atop a truck during a protest against official presidential election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2024, two days after the vote. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by the Spanish government in Madrid, exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, left, walks with Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez outside the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (Fernando Calvo, Spanish Government via AP, File)
Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, right, and Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou meet in Montevideo, Uruguay, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. Gonzalez, who claims he won the 2024 presidential election and is recognized by some countries as the legitimate president-elect, traveled from exile in Madrid to Argentina and Uruguay. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)
Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, right, and Argentine President Javier Milei hold hands from the government house balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. Gonzalez, who claims he won the 2024 presidential election and is recognized by some countries as the legitimate president-elect, traveled from exile in Madrid to Argentina. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A wanted poster of Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez covers a column at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, near Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, left, and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez hold up vote tally sheets from the top of a truck during a protest against the official presidential election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro the winner in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2024, two days after the election. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez, File)
Edmundo Gonzalez, who represented Venezuela's main opposition coalition in the July presidential election, addresses a gathering of supporters outside of the Organization of American States, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
