Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has found refuge in Spain

The head of Spanish diplomacy, José Manuel Albares, announced on national television that the country would grant him asylum.

Venezuelan opposition candidate for the July presidential election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, arrived in Spain on Sunday, September 8. Targeted by a arrest warrantcThe latter, who is contesting the re-election of Nicolas Maduro, declared upon his arrival in Madrid that he would continue the “struggle for freedom and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”

In a short 40-second audio message, the 75-year-old former ambassador shared “episodes of pressure, coercion and threats not to let me go” without giving details, thanking “testimonies of solidarity” received. He had to flee for “preserve one’s freedom and life”Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado stressed on 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.

He has “requested asylum”declared the head of Spanish diplomacy, José Manuel Albares, on national television. “The government will naturally (…) grant it to him.”

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, also gave him his support on Sunday. “The United States strongly condemns the decision of [Nicolas] Maduro to resort to repression and intimidation to cling to power through brute force rather than admit defeat at the ballot box”he said in a statement.