Venezuela | Spain grants political asylum to opposition candidate

(Madrid) Madrid will grant political asylum to Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who is going into exile in Spain on Sunday after a month of hiding in his country plunged into a deep crisis.

González Urrutia, who was challenging President Nicolás Maduro’s re-election on July 28, left Venezuela after ignoring three successive summonses to appear before prosecutors, arguing that appearing could have cost him his freedom.

Mr González Urrutia “asked to enjoy the right of asylum,” Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albaresa said on national television. “The government will naturally […] grant him”.

Mr Albares said he spoke with Mr Gonzalez Urrutia while he was on the Spanish military plane taking him to Spain, adding that the Venezuelan opponent was “fine”.

Spain, he said, reiterates “the demand that the minutes” of the polling stations in the July 28 presidential elections be presented and “that they can be verified,” Albares continued. Spain “is not going to recognize any so-called victory” by Maduro if these conditions are not met.

In statements on Saturday in Madrid at a meeting of the leadership of the Socialist Party, which he leads, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez assured that Spain ” [n’allait] “Not to give up” Mr. González Urrutia, described as a “hero”.

The Venezuelan opponent, who had been living in hiding for over a month, had been the target of an arrest warrant since September 3 for failing to appear at three summonses from the public prosecutor’s office for “disobedience to the law”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of functions” and “sabotage”, while the opposition and many observers consider that justice is at the beck and call of those in power.

The Latin American country has been plunged into a political crisis since the election that saw Nicolás Maduro officially re-elected for a third six-year term, a victory contested by the opposition.

Safe conduct

Venezuelan authorities announced on Saturday that they had granted safe conduct to the opponent “in the interest of peace” in the country.

“After voluntarily taking refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas a few days ago, he requested political asylum from the Spanish government,” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez wrote on social media. “Venezuela has granted the necessary safe conducts in the interest of peace and political tranquility in the country,” she said.

According to a source close to the opposition, he left Venezuela with his wife, Mercedes.

A former ambassador, Mr González Urrutia, 75, had agreed at short notice to replace opposition leader María Corina Machado as candidate, who had been declared ineligible.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said he would make “important statements,” which prosecutors said were expected to come at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday.

Nicolás Maduro, whose victory was validated by the Supreme Court on August 22, was declared the winner with 52% of the vote by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which has not made public the minutes of the polling stations, saying it was the victim of computer hacking.

Such a computer attack is considered implausible by the opposition and many observers, who see it as a maneuver by the government to avoid disclosing the exact count. According to the opposition, which published the minutes provided by its scrutineers, Mr. González Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.

The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries do not recognize Mr. Maduro’s re-election. Much of the international community had already failed to recognize his re-election in 2018 after the opposition boycotted the election, which claimed fraud.

After the announcement of his re-election on July 28, spontaneous demonstrations broke out. They left 27 dead and 192 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources.