Eduardo González/Luis Ayllón
Edmundo González arrived in Spain yesterday from Caracas on a Spanish Air Force plane, after the Government of Pedro Sánchez arranged the diplomatic means and materials necessary for his transfer, carried out at the request of the Venezuelan opposition candidate himself, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Spanish Air Force plane that was taking Edmundo González to Spain landed in the early afternoon at the Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base (Madrid). González, who traveled accompanied by his wife and the State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Diego Martínez Belío, was received by the State Secretary for Ibero-America and Spanish in the World, Susana Sumelzo. A daughter of the opposition leader, who lives in Spain, was also present.
“From now on, the procedures for the request for asylum will begin, the resolution of which will be favorable for the sake of Spain’s commitment to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans, especially political leaders,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hours earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had announced on the social network X: “Edmundo González, at his own request, is flying to Spain on a Spanish Air Force plane. And later in statements to journalists, he indicated that González Urrutía has also requested to be granted asylum and that the Government of Spain “is going to process and grant it.”
Albares made these statements in Muscat (Oman), where the plane of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, whom he is accompanying on his trip to China, made a technical stopover, and indicated that he had spoken with Edmundo González once he was on the Spanish Air Force plane in which the Venezuelan opposition leader was travelling.
He indicated that the opposition leader expressed his gratitude and added: “I have also conveyed to him our joy that he is well, that he is on his way to Spain, and I have reiterated the Government’s commitment to political rights, freedom of expression and demonstration, and the physical integrity of all Venezuelans.”
When asked if the decision was taken because there were fears for González’s physical integrity, Albares stressed that it was taken at his request, after spending some time at the residence of the Spanish Embassy in Caracas, although he said he could not give more details on the matter.
He insisted that, in response to the request, the Spanish Government guaranteed that it would provide all diplomatic and material means to make it effective and it was carried out when he considered it appropriate that it was the time to leave Venezuela.
In any case, Albares stated that “the position of the Government of Spain does not change at all with respect to what it was before the departure of Edmundo González.” And, after again demanding the publication of all the electoral records, he stressed that the Executive will not recognize “any supposed victory if that cannot be done.” That is, Spain maintains its position of not recognizing either Maduro’s victory or Edmundo González’s triumph, as some other countries have done, until the records are known.
The minister added that Spain “will always be there to promote dialogue and negotiation between the Government and the opposition to achieve a solution that has to be peaceful and genuinely Venezuelan among Venezuelans.” In addition, he assured that “Spain will never close the door to any Venezuelan,” recalling that there are already more than 100,000 people under special status.
Diplomatic sources cited by Efe assured that there has been no negotiation between the Spanish and Venezuelan governments or between Pedro Sánchez and Nicolás Maduro directly. Later, in statements to the 24 Horas channel of TVE, Albares assured that “there has not been any kind of political negotiation between the Government of Spain and that of Venezuela.
However, the executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, after confirming that González Urrutia had left the country with a safe conduct granted “for the sake of tranquility and political peace,” said that this had been granted to him after having maintained the “relevant contacts” with the Spanish Government and “once the extremes of the case had been fulfilled and in compliance with international law.”
On her Instagram account, Delcy Rodríguez reported that González Urrutia had been “voluntarily taking refuge in the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Caracas for several days.”
And for his part, the Attorney General of the Bolivarian regime, Tarek William Saab, assured that “the Governments of Spain and Venezuela agreed to grant a safe conduct” to González Urrutia so that he could leave the country
Some sources indicate that in the conversations to make possible the departure of the former presidential candidate in the elections in Venezuela and whose victory is not recognized by the Bolivarian regime, the former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose closeness to Maduro is known and who has not yet spoken out about the election results of almost a month and a half ago, would have played an important role.
As a result of these conversations, in which Delcy Rodríguez would have intervened directly, the Caracas regime accepted the departure of Edmundo González, who was thus able to travel to Spain on a Spanish Air Force plane.
González Urrutia remained since shortly after the elections, taking refuge in the Netherlands Embassy in Caracas. This was explained by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Caspar Veldkamp, in a letter sent to the Parliament of the Netherlands, in which he points out that his Government decided to attend to an “urgent” request the day after the elections to welcome the opposition leader.
Veldkamp details in his letter that Edmundo González decided to leave Venezuela at the beginning of September and “continue his fight from Spain.”
According to the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, González was under the “hospitality” of the Netherlands until last Thursday, September 5. On that date he moved to the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, Ramón Santos, from where he left early on Sunday to take the flight that brought him to Spain.
First words of González Urrutia
In a first audio message sent by González Urrutia to several Venezuelan journalists and politicians, after his arrival in Madrid, the opposition leader stated: “My departure from Caracas was surrounded by pressure, coercion and threats of not allow my departure. I trust that we will soon continue the struggle to achieve freedom and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
For its part, the Organization of American States (OAS) published a statement accusing the Chavista dictatorship of having forced González Urrutia into exile, “based on unfounded summons to the Attorney General’s Office and threats of imprisonment.”
The opposition leader María Corina Machado, justified González Urrutia’s decision because “he was in danger” and that, therefore, it was “necessary” for him to seek protection and leave Venezuela for Spain. In addition, she stated: “Edmundo will fight from outside alongside our diaspora and I will continue to do so here.
Criticism from the PP
The Vice Secretary of Institutional Affairs of the PP, Esteban González Pons, criticized the granting of political asylum to González Urrutia, because they consider that “it is not doing a favor to democracy, but rather removing a problem from the dictatorship. “On his account on the social network X, González Pons wrote: “Sanchez and the corrupt offices of ZP should be sparing in their self-praise: removing Edmundo González without recognizing him as legitimate president is not doing a favor to democracy, but removing a problem for the dictatorship. Cuba would do the same if asked.”
For his part, the spokesman for the Popular Group in Congress, Miguel Tellado, called the attitude of the Spanish Government “petty” and said: “The Government equidistant from the regime of terror of Maduro is now rushing to set itself up as a defender of dignity and democracy. They boast of welcoming Edmundo González Urrutia without recognizing his status as president-elect and continue to tolerate the unworthy attitude of Zapatero, who openly defends the Venezuelan dictatorship.”
Albares responded on TVE to the criticism of the PP, pointing out that there is a “great contradiction”, since some of its members have criticized the Government when “three days ago, Mrs. Ayuso – in reference to the Madrid president – requested that political asylum be granted” to Nicolás Maduro’s electoral rival. “It seems to me an enormous irresponsibility not to be on the side of Edmundo González, not to understand that, for both political and humanitarian reasons, this request for political asylum must be attended to,” said the minister.
The decision to welcome González Urrutia was also criticized by Podemos, whose leader, Ione Belarra, reproached the ‘progressive’ government of the PSOE for “the haste with which it has given asylum” to “the far-right Venezuelan opposition,” while “a year has passed without breaking diplomatic relations with Israel, a genocidal state that has thousands and thousands of murdered children behind it.” “Speechless,” he wrote on the same social network.
On Saturday afternoon, the President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, stated that the Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González is “a hero” whom Spain “will not abandon” and defended the role of his party as “one of the main bulwarks against the far-right international that is sweeping the world.”
The judge of the First Special Court of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela ordered this week the arrest of González Urrutia, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, for the crimes of “usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents, instigation to disobedience of laws, conspiracy, sabotage and association” to commit a crime.
The Prosecutor’s Office had requested the arrest after the PUD published on the Internet supposed electoral records that would demonstrate the victory of its candidate in the presidential elections. The Platform claims that it has 83.5% of the records, supposedly obtained through witnesses and members of the electoral tables. In response to this, José Manuel Albares immediately warned against “any attempt to curtail the fundamental rights” of Edmundo González Urrutia.
The National Electoral Commission (CNE) and the Supreme Court of Venezuela have declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner, but both the European Union (including Spain) and the United States and several Latin American countries have warned that they will not recognize his victory until all the voting records are published.
