Nicolás Maduro’s rival in Venezuela presidential poll flees to Spain

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Edmundo González, the opposition candidate recognised by the US as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election, has fled the Latin American country for Spain after President Nicolás Maduro’s government ordered his arrest.

“Edmundo González has taken off from Caracas for Spain in a Spanish air force plane,” the Madrid foreign ministry said. “The Spanish government has provided the diplomatic and material means necessary for his transfer, carried out at his request.”

Venezuela’s vice-president Delcy Rodríguez said on Saturday night that the government had granted González safe passage out of the country to help restore “political peace”. She said in a statement on Instagram that González had been “voluntarily” sheltering in the Spanish embassy for several days before his departure.

Maduro, a revolutionary socialist in power since 2013, claimed he had won the July 28 presidential election. But the US and other countries said the official results were not credible after government-controlled election authorities failed to produce any breakdown of voting and blamed a cyber attack from North Macedonia for disrupting the count.

The opposition published thousands of official tally sheets from polling stations online that showed González had beaten Maduro by a margin of more than two to one. Election observers from the UN and US non-governmental organisation the Carter Center, also said the official results showing Maduro as victor lacked credibility.

The US has recognised González as the winner of the election and most Latin American and European governments have refused to accept Maduro as the victor, calling on the Venezuelan government to release the voting tally sheets, as it has done in previous elections. Maduro’s allies Russia, China, Iran and Cuba have congratulated him on winning.

The Venezuelan government has cracked down hard on the opposition since the election, arresting more than 2,000 people, including prominent opposition politicians. Attorney-general Tarek Saab ordered the arrest of González last week after he failed to attend a summons in connection with a criminal investigation into what the authorities called election sabotage.

González, a 75-year-old retired diplomat who was previously little-known, captured the imagination of Venezuelans after he was chosen to represent the opposition in the election following the banning of popular opposition leader Maríá Corina Machado.

The Spanish diplomatic statement on González came the day after Madrid made its strongest comments yet on the Venezuelan election, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling González “a hero who Spain will not abandon”.

The foreign ministry said: “The government of Spain reiterates its commitment to the political rights and safety of all Venezuelan men and women, especially political leaders.”

In a further escalation of tensions this weekend, the Maduro government revoked Brazil’s authority to represent Argentine diplomatic interests in Venezuela after Caracas broke off diplomatic relations with Argentina. Six members of the opposition, including close aides of Machado, have been sheltering in the Argentine embassy since the election.

The Venezuelan government said the decision was taken because the embassy was being used to plot assassination attempts against Maduro. The opposition said on Friday night that Venezuelan security services had surrounded the Argentine embassy and were keeping it under surveillance.

Since the election, regional powers Colombia and Brazil, with US backing, have been attempting to persuade Maduro to negotiate with the opposition on a handover of power, but these efforts have so far been unsuccessful. Maduro is due to be sworn in next January for another six-year term.

Ryan Berg, director of the Americas programme at US think-tank CSIS, tweeted that “the winner of the #28Jul election by a ratio of more than 2:1 has now been driven into exile from Venezuela”, and asked: “When will the US and international community sharpen its policy against @NicolasMaduro‘s dictatorship?”