Opposition Presidential Candidate from Venezuela Seeks Asylum in Spain

September 8, 2024 TruthUSA

Spain’s government stated that the decision for former Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González to flee to Spain was his own, and he left on a plane provided by the Venezuelan air force.

CARACAS, Venezuela—After being granted asylum in Spain, former Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González has fled into exile.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez announced the unexpected departure of González, who is considered the rightful winner of July’s presidential election by Venezuela’s opposition and several foreign governments.

Rodríguez stated that the government decided to allow González to leave the country safely, just days after ordering his arrest, in order to help restore “the country’s political peace and tranquility.”

Neither González nor opposition leader Maria Corina Machado have issued any comments.

Meanwhile, Spain’s government confirmed that the choice to leave Venezuela was made solely by González, and he departed on a plane provided by the Venezuelan air force.

“Spain is committed to protecting the political rights and physical well-being of all Venezuelans,” stated Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares on the X social media platform.

González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, became a last-minute substitute when Machado was disqualified from running. Although previously unknown to most Venezuelans, his campaign quickly inspired the hopes of millions of Venezuelans seeking change after a decade-long economic crisis.

While President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the July election, most Western governments have yet to acknowledge his victory and are demanding the release of a detailed breakdown of the votes. Tally sheets compiled by opposition volunteers from over two-thirds of the electronic voting machines indicate González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

These tally sheets are widely regarded as the most reliable evidence of election results in Venezuela. In past presidential elections, the National Electoral Council made available online the results from each of the over 30,000 voting machines, but this time, the Maduro-controlled entity did not disclose any data, citing an alleged cyberattack from their opponents in North Macedonia.

After González failed to appear three times in connection to a criminal investigation into what authorities consider to be an act of electoral sabotage, Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a strong supporter of Maduro, sought his arrest.

Saab claimed that the voting records shared online by the opposition were fabricated and aimed at undermining the National Electoral Council.

Experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, who observed the election at the invitation of Maduro’s government, stated that the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility. While not confirming the opposition’s claim to victory, the U.N. experts mentioned that the voting records published online seemed to have all the original security features.

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