Edmundo González Urrutia spoke for the first time since arriving in Madrid this Sunday. He did so through a statement published this Monday on social networks in which he tried to explain the decision that led him to leave Venezuela. “I decided to leave Venezuela and settle in Spain, whose government I deeply appreciate for welcoming and protecting me at this time. I also thank the Dutch embassy in Venezuela. I made such a decision thinking about Venezuela and the fact that our destiny as a country cannot, must not be one of a conflict of pain and suffering,” said the opposition candidate in the last elections on July 28.
“I did it thinking of my family and all Venezuelan families in this moment of so much tension and anguish, I did it so that things can change and we can build a new stage for Venezuela,” he said: “You know that I have always defended the democratic values of peace and freedom. My commitment is not based on personal ambition, this decision is a gesture that affects everyone and I hope it will be reciprocal as such.
Edmundo González says that this is “incompatible with resentment” and adds: “Only the politics of dialogue can make us rediscover ourselves as compatriots. Only democracy and the realization of the popular will can be the way forward for our future as a country and I will remain committed to it. I think above all of the people deprived of their freedom who supported me. Your freedom is for me the great priority, an inalienable demand.
González also ends with a recognition of the leader of the Venezuelan right: “I want to value the work and efforts of María Corina Machado who led this electoral process and of the Unitary Platform for its work and commitment.”
Before heading to the military base of Torrejón de Ardoz, where landed early Sunday afternoon After stopping in the Dominican Republic and the Azores, the opposition candidate to Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 elections had spent two days – since September 5 – at the residence of the Spanish ambassador to Venezuela, Ramón Santos. Previously, he had been hosted by the diplomatic representation of the Netherlands in the Latin American country.
Edmundo González remained in the Dutch diplomatic office for more than a month, after the situation heated up when the Venezuelan electoral authority declared Maduro’s victory. The last time he appeared in public was on July 30, two days after the elections, during a demonstration in front of the UN headquarters in Caracas.
The opposition has denounced “fraud” and has been claiming since the same election date that the documents it has prove that González won, while the international community demands that Venezuela publish all these documents. The United States and some Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Uruguay, have recognized González as the winner, while the EU is keeping up the pressure before explicitly pronouncing on results that it does not recognize anyway.
An agreed exit
In late August, the prosecution summoned the former diplomat to testify as he was under investigation for conspiracy, usurpation of office and incitement to disobedience. His refusal to appear at the courts during three calls led the prosecution to request an arrest warrant on September 3.
At that time, contacts with senior officials of the Maduro government to facilitate the exile of the opposition candidate had already begun with the intermediary of Zapatero, after the Venezuelan opposition turned to the former Spanish president to avoid a trial against González whose most likely destination was his incarceration. The sources consulted assure that the silence that the former Spanish president has maintained on what has happened in Venezuela since the elections is related to the preservation of this capacity for negotiation, since he is one of the few leaders who can dialogue at the same time with the Venezuelan opposition. and Maduro’s environment.
