Amid ongoing controversy over election fraud in Venezuela, an opposition leader who challenged the re-elected President Nicolas Maduro has sought asylum in Spain.
On the 7th (local time), according to foreign media including The New York Times (NYT), Delcy Rodriguez, Vice President of Venezuela, issued a statement saying, "Edmundo Gonzalez, an opposition party member who had been voluntarily staying as a refugee for several days at the Spanish embassy in Caracas, has left the country and requested political asylum from that government."
Jose Manuel Alvarez, Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs, also confirmed that Gonzalez flew to Spain on a Spanish Air Force plane. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "The Spanish government guarantees the political rights and physical safety of all Venezuelans."
Earlier, when the Venezuelan National Electoral Council confirmed President Maduro's third term just six hours after the polls closed on July 28, allegations of election fraud arose. This was because the results conflicted with exit polls from Western research organizations that predicted opposition candidate Gonzalez's victory, and the electoral council refused real-time vote counting observation.
Subsequently, protests against the election results erupted across Venezuela, and the Maduro regime blamed the opposition for them. On the 2nd, the Venezuelan court issued an arrest warrant requested by prosecutors against Gonzalez on charges including usurpation of power, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and document forgery. Gonzalez had been hiding for about six weeks at the residence of the Dutch charg? d'affaires in Caracas before moving to the Spanish embassy immediately after the election.
With Gonzalez ultimately choosing exile due to the threat of arrest, Venezuela is expected to drift further away from democracy. Ryan Berg, head of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), analyzed, "The forced exile of a president-elect is a sad day for the millions who voted for him," adding, "(With Gonzalez, considered the winning candidate by the West, seeking asylum) political transition has become even more distant."
As a result, international pressure on the Maduro regime is expected to intensify. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, issued a statement that day saying, "Venezuelan authorities must stop repression and arbitrary arrests of opposition and civil society members and immediately release all political prisoners," and "The EU will continue to support the Venezuelan people's aspiration for democracy."
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