Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has found refuge in Spain

Venezuelan opposition candidate for the July presidential election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, arrived in Spain on Sunday, September 8. Targeted by a arrest warrantcThe man who contests the re-election of Nicolas Maduro declared from Madrid that he would continue the “struggle for freedom and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela”In a short message, the 75-year-old former ambassador shared “pressure episodes” And “threats not to let me go”, without giving further details.

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had to flee for “preserve one’s freedom and life”stressed the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Maria Corina Machado, on the social network X. “His life was in danger, and the increase in threats, summonses and arrest warrants issued against him shows that the regime [de Nicolas Maduro] has no qualms or limits in his obsession with silencing him and trying to break him”she added.

The Venezuelan opponent 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. “The United States strongly condemns the decision of 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.