Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro publicly mocked opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia, former candidate for the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), and accused him of having asked the Chavista regime for “clemency” to leave the country.
During a speech broadcast by state broadcaster Venezolana de Televisión this Thursday (19), Maduro stated that González, who is taking refuge in Spain, had requested help from the Venezuelan regime to leave the country, contradicting the accusations of the opponent, who has already stated that he left Venezuela after being the target of repression.
“I feel sorry for you, Mr. González Urrutia, who asked me for clemency, that you don’t keep your word. That you don’t keep your word about what you committed to and now you come to allege your own stupidity and cowardice to try to save I don’t know what,” said Maduro in a mocking tone, during the broadcast on the state-owned company.
The Chavista dictator’s speech was also considered a direct response to statements made by González, who, a day earlier, had reported having been blackmailed and pressured by the Caracas dictatorship to sign a document that would have guaranteed him safe passage to leave the country. González says he was coerced into signing a document recognizing the Venezuelan Supreme Court’s decision on Maduro’s victory in the elections.
González left Venezuela on a Spanish Air Force flight that took him directly to Madrid. The opposition leader claims that during the process of leaving the South American country, he was pressured to sign this document from Maduro under the threat of facing “consequences” if he refused. For González, such coercion nullifies the validity of the text he signed, arguing that his departure from the country was not voluntary, but rather the result of an intimidation mechanism by the Maduro regime.
According to the official version of Chavismo, González would have requested direct negotiations with the regime, without any form of intimidation.
“No one can claim his own cowardice and betrayal of his followers. I don’t know what he hopes to save, because he has already lost his morals forever,” Maduro said, using rhetoric aimed at weakening the image of his political adversary.
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