(Madrid) Venezuelan opponent Edmundo González Urrutia, rival of outgoing President Nicolás Maduro during the July 28 presidential election, said Friday from Spain where he has been in exile since the beginning of September that he had left his country after having received threats against his family.
“My departure from the country is temporary,” he declared, saying he was “forced to leave Venezuela due to unspeakable pressure and extreme threats that have affected even those closest to me” and referring to “his family life” without further details.
Since the contested re-election of Nicolas Maduro in July, the opposition has ensured that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who arrived in Spain on September 8 to seek asylum, received the majority of votes.
After the announcement of Mr. Maduro’s re-election, spontaneous demonstrations left 27 dead and 192 injured. Some 2,400 people were also arrested, according to official sources.
“The world” took note of the election minutes and “the regime’s response was to cause […] an alarming number of deaths, persecuting many people and taking many political prisoners,” continued Edmundo González Urrutia, during a speech at the La Toja forum, which brings together political and economic figures in the northeast of Spain.
On Wednesday, the Carter Foundation, an NGO whose observers followed the Venezuelan presidential election, presented to the Organization of American States (OAS) official documents concerning the minutes of the vote, which “demonstrate” the victory of González Urrutia, according to the foundation created by former US President Jimmy Carter.
Edmundo González Urrutia also declared on X that he met on the sidelines of the forum the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, with whom he discussed “the next steps in building democracy in Venezuela”.
Josep Borrell also mentioned this interview on the same social network, and condemned “the repression of dissent” in Venezuela and called for “an inclusive dialogue with guarantees for all parties to move towards a democratic transition”.