President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia leaves Venezuela and goes into exile in Spain

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, winner of the Venezuelan presidential election as the Unitary Platform political party candidate, left Venezuela on Saturday and is now in exile in Spain.

Nicolás Maduro's rival in the presidential election on July 28 agreed to retire to Spain after the Venezuelan government assured to offer him "safe passage" to bring "political peace to the country."

Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, in a statement posted on Instagram, reported that González Urrutia had requested "the processing of political asylum" that the Venezuelan government had decided to grant it to him:

The information was confirmed hours later by González Urrutia's lawyer, José Vicente Haro, who simply assured France 24 "that he went to Spain," claiming he could not comment further.

However, a source close to González Urrutia assured that the 75-year-old opposition figure, who has not appeared before the public since July 30, was heading to Spain accompanied by his wife, Mercedes.

Hours later, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs José Manuel Albares assured on X that Edmundo González Urrutia arrived on board a Spanish Air Force plane bound for the Torrejón de Ardoz base in Madrid:

An hour earlier, opposition leader María Corina Machado came out in defense of González Urrutia, assuring that he had left Venezuela to “preserve his freedom and his life” and assured that he will be sworn in as president on Jan. 10, 2025:

Venezuela's complicated political situation

AFP recalls that the news comes in the midst of a political crisis unleashed after the presidential election. The pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) awarded victory to Maduro with 52% of the vote, reelecting him for a third six-year term.

However, the opposition assured that the election was not transparent, since the electoral authority has not yet shown the detailed count of each vote as required by law, arguing that its systems had been hacked.

For this reason, the opposition assured that the victory, with more than 60% of the vote, belonged to Gonzalez Urrutia. This information was obtained from a website that digitized the tally sheets compiled by witnesses and which led the Venezuelan justice system to open an investigation against González Urrutia, accusing him of publishing copies of the electoral records to prove his victory.

The United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries sided with González Urrutia and did not consider the election valid, requesting a verification of the votes, which has not yet happened. In response, Washington, D.C., among other world powers, recognized the Unitary Platform political party candidate as the winner of the election.

This triggered a series of protests in Venezuela that ended with 27 dead, 192 wounded and 2,400 arrested, many of them minors. Little by little, these demonstrations spread around the world.