Venezuela’s opposition leader, Maria Corina Machadosaid he would continue to fight from Venezuela while the anti-Chavismo candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiawill do it “from outside”, after the former presidential candidate went to Madrid following a request from asylum which was granted by Spain.
“Let this be very clear to everyone: Edmundo will fight from the outside with our diaspora and I will continue to do it here, with you,” Machado said through X.
Likewise, he assured that the candidate for the presidency of Venezuela of the United Democratic Platform (PUD) had left the country because his “life was in danger” and in the face of “increasing threats”, following an arrest warrant against him and a summons from the prosecutor’s office for an investigation related to the publication by the PUD of electoral records on a website, which – according to the bloc – demonstrate the defeat of Nicolás Maduro, winner according to the official result.
To Venezuelans,
Edmundo González Urrutía, elected president of Venezuela, has left the country and is in Spain.
Since our historic victory on July 28, 2024, the regime has unleashed a wave of brutal repression against all citizens,…
– María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) September 8, 2024
“Faced with this brutal reality, it is necessary for our cause to preserve his freedom, his integrity and his life,” he said, while considering that “the attempts at blackmail and coercion to which he has been subjected demonstrate that the regime has no scruples or limits in their obsession with silencing him and trying to break him.
In this sense, he affirmed that “this functioning of the regime and his allies“This is “further proof of their criminal nature, which delegitimizes them and sinks them further every day.” And he said that “their attempted coup against popular sovereignty will not come to fruition,” he said.
The leader of the opposition to the Maduro regime, María Corina Machado, hugs Edmundo González.
The PUD leader arrived in Madrid this Sunday accompanied by his wife, Mercedes de González, after flying on board a Spanish Air Force plane, as confirmed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For her part, the executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, reported this Saturday that the opposition leader had left Venezuela with a safe passage granted by the government “for the sake of tranquility and political peace.”
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrellsaid that the PUD leader “had to request political asylum” in the face of “repression, political persecution and direct threats to his security and freedom,” after “receiving hospitality at the Dutch residence in Caracas until September 5.”
