Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González, who claims to have defeated dictator Nicolás Maduro in a sham presidential election in July, left Venezuela and arrived in Spain on Sunday, seeking political asylum.
Spain’s Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that González and his wife were flown from Venezuela on a Spanish Air Force plane, arriving at the Torrejón Air Base in Madrid in the afternoon hours of Sunday local time.
“From now on, the process for requesting asylum will begin, the resolution of which will be favorable in the interest of Spain’s commitment to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans, especially political leaders,” the statement read.
González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, was the only legitimate opposition candidate the socialist Maduro regime allowed on the ballot of the July 28 sham presidential election. His appearance on the ballot was initially intended to be of a placeholder nature in the event the Maduro regime allowed opposition leader María Corina Machado to participate. The Maduro regime ultimately upheld the ban on Machado, preventing her from running.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp stated on Sunday that the embassy of the Netherlands in Caracas hosted González from July 28, the day of the sham presidential election, to September 5, when he requested asylum to Spain.
Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan authorities — all subservient to him — insist the dictator was the “winner” of the sham election despite the authorities’ continued refusal to publish voter data to corroborate the claimed results.
The Venezuelan opposition published its own voter data, collected from local voting stations directly rather than from the national electoral authority, indicating that González defeated Maduro in a landslide. The international community has widely rejected Maduro’s “victory,” as have many Venezuelans nationwide in protests the socialists responded to with a brutal persecution campaign that left more than 25 dead and roughly 200 injured. Independent human rights groups have documented the arbitrary detention of more than 2,400 individuals — including 129 children, of whom 86 were reportedly released in recent days.
Machado issued a statement on social media after González arrived in Spain, explaining that the opposition candidate’s life was in danger due to the growing threats from the Maduro regime that “demonstrate that the regime has no scruples and no limits in its obsession with silencing him and trying to subdue him.”
“Faced with this brutal reality, it is necessary for our cause to preserve his freedom, his integrity and his life,” Machado said.
The opposition leader stated that González will be “sworn in as Constitutional President of Venezuela and Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces” on January 10, 2025, the date when a new presidential term is slated to begin in Venezuela.
González’s departure from Venezuela occurred days after the Maduro regime issued an arrest warrant against the former opposition candidate, accusing him of several alleged crimes related to the sham election such as “disobedience,” “conspiracy,” “usurpation of functions,” and “sabotage.”
His departure also occurred hours after the Maduro regime unilaterally revoked a permission granted to Brazil that gave it custody of the Argentine embassy in Caracas after Maduro decided to break ties with Argentina and six other countries that questioned his claimed electoral “victory.”
Argentina gave permission to Brazil to watch over its embassy in Caracas after Maduro broke ties with the country. Maduro objected to Buenos Aires giving refuge to six Venezuelan dissidents that the ruling socialists claim are part of unproven assassination plots against Maduro and other members of the regime. Venezuelan security forces surrounded the embassy throughout the weekend after Maduro revoked Brazil’s custody permission and reportedly only left once González was out of the country.
Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez first announced González’s flight, claiming on social media that González left the country on Saturday after spending “several days” as a refugee in the Embassy of Spain in Caracas, where he requested asylum.
“In this sense, once the pertinent contacts between both governments have taken place, the extremes of the case have been fulfilled and in compliance with international legality, Venezuela has granted the due safe-conducts for the sake of the tranquility and political peace of the country,” Rodríguez’s message read.
“This conduct reaffirms the respect for the law that has prevailed in the actions of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the international community,” the message continued.
In remarks given to Spain’s state-owned RTVE television channel Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares denied on Sunday that there was any “political negotiation” between the government of Spain and the Maduro regime.
“There has not been any kind of political negotiation between the Government of Spain and the Government of Venezuela,” Albares said, adding that Gonzalez’s political asylum was a “personal request” from the opposition leader.
Shortly after the Spanish foreign minister’s statements, Rodríguez insisted on social media that the Maduro regime had “extensive conversations” with Spain over González’s departure from Venezuela, with the “full guarantees offered by a safe conduct” being the result of an agreement between both countries.
“The landing of an aircraft of the Spanish Air Force with the authorization of the Venezuelan aeronautical authorities is a communicative fact,” Rodríguez said.
Similarly to Rodríguez’s claims, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab asserted on Sunday that the Maduro regime and Spain held talks to grant González safe passage out of Venezuela.
“The governments of Spain and Venezuela agreed to grant a safe-conduct pass to citizen Edmundo González Urrutia so that he could leave the national territory and take advantage of the asylum granted by Spain,” Saab said, reading from a statement by the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Saab claimed that González’s departure “ends the brief season of a humorous work of a genre that I could say of comedy, I don’t know, of [Cuban] bufo theater.”
“I would say that it had its last performance on the night of Saturday, September 7, when González staged his farewell on the runway of Maitequía [sic] Airport, here in Caracas,” Saab continued, claiming that González had a “supporting actress,” a “villain,” in reference to María Corina Machado, who, according to the attorney general, “threatened the leading role” of González “by taking the microphone from him.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who spent years promoting the idea of Maduro holding a “free and fair election” in Venezuela — released a statement on Sunday describing González’s departure as a “direct result of the anti-democratic measures” of Maduro following the election.
“On July 28, the Venezuelan people overwhelmingly and unequivocally expressed their desire for democratic change. The election results and the will of the people cannot be merely swept aside by Maduro and the Venezuelan electoral authorities,” the statement read. “We stand with González Urrutia in his call to continue the struggle for liberty and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
“We call on Maduro to cease the repression and immediately release all those unjustly detained,” the statement continued. “The United States will continue to work with our international partners to defend democratic freedoms in Venezuela and ensure Maduro and his representatives are held accountable for their actions.”