(Madrid) Venezuelan opposition candidate for the July presidential election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, arrived Sunday in Spain, which will grant him asylum, the Spanish Foreign Ministry announced.
“I am convinced that in the near future we will continue the struggle for freedom and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela,” he said in an audio message transmitted upon his arrival in Madrid.
The opposition leader and his wife were traveling on a Spanish military plane that landed around 4 p.m. (10 a.m. Eastern time) at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid, according to the ministry.
In his short 40-second message, the 75-year-old former ambassador spoke of “episodes of pressure, coercion and threats not to let me go” without giving details, thanking “the expressions of solidarity […] received”.
After a month in hiding, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had to flee to “preserve his freedom and his life,” Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told X.
“His life was in danger, and the increase in threats, summonses and arrest warrants issued against him shows that the regime has no scruples or limits in its obsession with silencing him and trying to break him,” she added.
She assured that Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia will “fight from the outside with the diaspora.” “I will continue to do it here,” she added.
Mr Gonzalez Urrutia, who was challenging President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election on July 28, left Venezuela after ignoring three summons to appear before prosecutors, arguing that appearing could have cost him his freedom.
PHOTO FAUSTO TORREALBA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Nicolas Maduro
He “asked for the right to asylum,” Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on national television. “The government will naturally […] grant him”.
Mr Albares said he spoke with Mr Gonzalez Urrutia while he was on the plane, adding that the Venezuelan opposition leader was “fine”.
Spain, he said, reiterates “the demand that the minutes” of the polling stations during the presidential election be presented and “that they can be verified.” Spain “is not going to recognize any so-called victory” of Mr. Maduro if these conditions are not met, he warned.
In Caracas, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab, considered to be under the orders of the government, described Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia’s asylum in Spain as the end of “a season of a humorous work.”
Safe conduct
The Venezuelan opponent had been the target of an arrest warrant since September 2, with the public prosecutor’s office having opened investigations for “disobedience to the law”, “conspiracy”, “usurpation of functions” and “sabotage”.
“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 conduct in the interest of peace and political tranquility in the country.”
A retired diplomat, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia had agreed to replace Mr.me Machado, declared ineligible.
Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner with 52% of the vote by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which did not make public the minutes of the polling stations.
According to the opposition, which published the minutes provided by its scrutineers, Mr Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.
After the announcement of Mr Maduro’s re-election, spontaneous protests broke out. Their repression left 27 dead and 192 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources.
PHOTO LEONARDO FERNANDEZ VILORIA, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia
“Sad day for democracy”
The United States, the European Union (EU) 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 an election boycotted by the opposition, which had cried fraud.
On Sunday, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken gave his support to the opposition candidate.
“The United States strongly condemns (Nicolas) Maduro’s decision to use repression and intimidation to cling to power through brute force rather than concede defeat at the ballot box,” Blinken said in a statement.
“Today is a sad day for democracy in Venezuela,” declared the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, specifying that “in a democracy, no political leader should be forced to seek asylum in another country.”
He called for “an end to repression, arbitrary arrests and harassment of members of the opposition and civil society” as well as the release of “all political prisoners.”