The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro said on Monday that he closely followed the negotiations for the safe conduct granted to the opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, his rival in the elections on July 28, and that “respects” his decision to go into exile in Spain.
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“I can tell Ambassador González Urrutia, with whom I have had a tough confrontation since July 29, that I have been attentive to all of this and I understand the step he has taken and I respect it. I hope he does well on his path and in his new life,” he said in his weekly program.
Maduro said he conducted the process for the diplomat’s departure “collectively with a team, but personally.” However, he did not provide details about the negotiations that led to González’s departure from Venezuela, saying that “he has his word to comply with the agreements” and “that he reserves the constitutional right to state secrecy.”
“What I can tell you is that everything that has been done has been done impeccably, in the humanist spirit of our Bolivarian revolution, in the search for the consolidation of peace and coexistence and the reunion of Venezuelans,” he added.
Everything that has been done has been done impeccably, in the humanistic spirit of our Bolivarian revolution.
The president also told opposition leader González Urrutia that he can be sure that his wishes for “peace and harmony” for Venezuela will be fulfilled. “Peace will reign in Venezuela above all else.”
He also said that after the departure of the former diplomat to Spain, the country “is calm.” “We have played fair and we have won fair and when I say we have won, it means that the country’s peace has won. Today the country is calm, the country applauds what has happened,” he stressed.
Maduro, who for the first time publicly referred to González Urrutia as “ambassador”, had called for jail time for the opposition whom he has repeatedly called a “coward” for being in hiding since July 30.
‘I did it to change things’: Edmundo González
González Urrutia arrived in Spain on Sunday, where he will be granted asylum, after the Venezuelan justice system issued an arrest warrant against him on September 2.
On Saturday, the Venezuelan government announced that it had granted him safe passage to leave the country “for the sake of political peace and tranquility.”
The opposition leader reported that he was subjected to harassment and threats and On Monday he promised to continue from Spain “the fight to achieve freedom and the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
In a statement released through his X network profile, he said that he made the decision to go into exile in the European country because the fate of Venezuelans “cannot, should not be, a conflict of pain and suffering.”
“I did this so that things would change and we could build a new era for Venezuela,” said the Venezuelan opposition leader.
In his statement, González Urrutia also called for a “policy of dialogue” and said that “only democracy and the realization of the popular will can be the path” for the future of Venezuela.
His exile has raised concerns among several Latin American and European governments, as well as international organizations such as the UN and the OAS, which believe that the measure further undermines any possibility of dialogue in Venezuela.
The regime has not only failed to produce the slightest evidence of the electoral result (…) but has forced the exile of the candidate Edmundo González
The Colombian government on Monday regretted “the departure of Edmundo González from Venezuela” and reaffirmed that “the political process in the sister country and in any country in the Americas must be surrounded by full guarantees.”
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, for his part, pointed out that González Urrutia’s departure is a consequence of Maduro’s “antidemocratic” measures.
According to Blinken, the opposition leader remains “an indisputable voice for peace and democratic change in Venezuela,” and the United States supports him in his call to continue “the fight for freedom and the restoration of democracy.”
The UN also warned that the opposition leader’s exile “is clearly not the end of the post-election crisis” and said it remains “very concerned about the situation in Venezuela.”
The international organization sent a panel of electoral experts to Venezuela to monitor the July elections and, although their conclusions are usually confidential for the secretary general, in this case they were made public and said that the elections did not meet the required standards of transparency.
Also, The Organization of American States (OAS) accused the Venezuelan “authoritarian regime” of having “forced the exile” of González Urrutia, whom the organization considers the winner of the presidential elections.
“The regime has not only failed to produce the slightest evidence of the electoral result (…) but has forced the exile of candidate Edmundo González,” the OAS General Secretariat said in a statement.
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