Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González fled to Spain Saturday after he was facing an arrest warrant following a disputed election against President Nicolás Maduro. González fled as tensions deepened at a diplomatic residence in Caracas, Venezuela, The New York Times reported.
Last Monday, a court that handles “crimes associated with terrorism” issued an arrest warrant for González, alleging he was guilty of conspiracy, usurping power, sabotage and other acts against the state.
Maduro remains in the international political hot seat for insisting that he won the presidential election as he continues to violently crackdown on protests to him staying in power. It is widely believed that González won the election.
On Saturday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez announced that González had traveled to Spain after he had moved to the Spanish embassy in Caracas. Spain has confirmed his departure, with Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, indicating that González requested passage on a Spanish Air Force plane and that Spain has granted him political asylum.
“The government of Spain is committed to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans,” he wrote in Spanish.
González did not imagine himself as Venezuela’s next president as a retired diplomat who suddenly found himself running against Maduro after the country’s opposition leader had been disqualified from running in the election the Venezuelan Supreme Court. González accepted the role out of a sense of duty, according to The Times.
The Biden-Harris administration has quietly worked for Madura’s ouster and seized his plane last week.
Venezuelan police attempted to prevent six other opposition leaders from getting out of the country by surrounding an Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas Friday night. The six Venezuelans have been in hiding there since March when they too had learned that the attorney general had issued warrants for their arrest. Argentina’s Foreign Ministry has warned Venezuela that it considers the opposition members to be asylum seekers and that Venezuelan forces should not attempt to “kidnap” them.
Argentina has no diplomatic team in Venezuela after Maduro ordered it to leave the country because it does not accept the legitimacy of his reelection. Brazil has been representing Argentina’s interest in Venezuela ever since.
