By Ana Cantero and Vivian Sequera
MADRID/CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez flew to Spain on Sunday to seek asylum, Madrid said, hours after leaving the country amid a political and diplomatic crisis over disputed elections in July.
Gonzalez – who challenged President Nicolas Maduro’s victory declaration – arrived at the Torrejon de Ardoz military base with his wife, Spain’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The 75-year-old’s exit – seen by the US, the EU and other powers in the region as the winner of a disputed vote – came a week after Venezuelan authorities issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him of conspiracy and more. crime.
“Today is a sad day for democracy in Venezuela,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement. “In a democracy, no political leader should be forced to seek asylum in another country.”
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said Instagram authorities had given Gonzalez a safe passage to restore “political peace”. Spain’s foreign ministry said there had been no official talks with the Venezuelan government about Gonzalez’s exit.
Venezuela’s opposition said the July 28 election resulted in a landslide victory for Gonzalez, and published a vote count online saying he had won.
Maduro denies all these claims and says there is a right-wing plot to sabotage his government.
Gonzalez’s move to Spain marked another jolting shift in the fortunes of the former diplomat who came out of retirement and took over the candidacy in March, first as a placeholder after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and other replacements could not stand.
Machado confirmed in X that Gonzalez is now in Spain, adding that he has fled to protect “his freedom, his integrity and his life”.
“The increasing threats, subpoenas, arrest warrants and even attempts at extortion and coercion made show that the regime has no concern or limits in its obsession to silence and try to destroy them,” he wrote.
Gonzalez will continue to fight opposition from Spain, while he will continue to do so in Venezuela, Machado said, and vowed to be sworn in on January 10, 2025, when the next presidential term begins.
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Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish TV he had told Gonzalez “any person whose physical integrity or fundamental rights may be threatened will be welcomed in Spain and the embassy.”
He added that the move to Spain had been planned for several days and the foreign minister said Gonzalez’s asylum process would now begin.
Gonzalez had taken refuge in the Netherlands and then the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela after the election, Dutch and Venezuelan officials said.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a letter to parliament on Sunday that Gonzalez had urgently sought refuge at the Dutch Embassy the day after the election.
“At the beginning of September, Edmundo Gonzalez showed that he … wanted to leave and continue the fight from Spain”, Veldkamp added.
Spanish officials, including former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has had diplomatic relations with the South American country in the past, have been involved in a week of negotiations with Venezuelan authorities to get Gonzalez to leave the country, sources familiar with the talks said. Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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That Maduro allowed Gonzalez’s departure despite the arrest warrant he faces may have dampened recent international criticism of him.
Machado, though, remains the subject of investigation and has largely been sequestered in an unknown location since the vote, appearing only occasionally to lead public meetings. Gonzalez’s departure came less than 24 hours after security forces surrounded the former Argentine embassy in Caracas, now protected by Brazil, where six opposition staffers have taken refuge since a warrant was issued for them in March.
Attorney General Tarek Saab, who met with Gonzalez’s lawyer this week and who has been one of the opposition’s most strident accusers, held a press conference on Friday saying that the government knew “the right time” for Gonzalez to enter the Spanish embassy and agreed to give him safe passage. to leave the country.
In a recording obtained by Reuters after Gonzalez arrived in Spain, he said that he had left Caracas “surrounded by pressure, coercion and threats.”
“I believe that we will soon continue the fight for freedom and return to democracy in Venezuela,” Gonzalez said.
The opposition is pushing for more street protests and international pressure to have the victory recognized, but so far these tactics have had little effect amid anti-government rallies.
