Edmundo González Urrutia calls for dialogue among Venezuelans to ‘avoid pain and suffering’

Twenty-four hours after landing in Madrid in a Spanish Air Force plane on which he embarked on the road to exile, Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia issued a conciliatory message in which he said he made the decision to leave Venezuela moved by the will to avoid “pain and suffering” for his country. González declared himself “incompatible with resentment” and placed emphasis on “the policy of dialogue” among Venezuelans to overcome the current crisis. “I have decided to leave Venezuela and move to Spain, whose government I am deeply grateful to for having welcomed me and giving me protection at this time,” he said via Instagram. “I also thank the Embassy of the Netherlands in Venezuela,” he added, referring to the diplomatic legation where he had been a refugee since July 29 until last Thursday, when he moved into the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas.

The former presidential candidate for the Unitary Platform who, according to the partial data that the opposition has managed to secure won the presidential elections on July 28 — the government of President Nicolás Maduro has refused to release the full paper tally from the ballot stations that could confirm or deny the victory of Chavismo — explained that he made his decision “thinking of Venezuela” and that the future of his country “cannot be that of a conflict of pain and suffering.” He added that he chose to leave also thinking of his family and all Venezuelan families “in this moment of tension and anguish.” “I have done it so that things might change, and we may build a new stage for Venezuela,” he said. “My commitment is not based on personal ambition [...] it is a gesture that extends a hand to all and I hope that as such it will be reciprocated. Only democracy and the realization of the popular will can be the path for our future as a country and I will remain committed to it,” González Urrutia said while remembering “all the people deprived of freedom” who supported him. The release of opposition supporters arrested in the protests following the disputed election constitutes for the opposition candidate “the great priority; an unrenounceable demand.”

After expressing his “infinite gratitude” to those who have supported him in Venezuela and in the rest of the world, González Urrutia dedicated words of praise to María Corina Machado, who won the opposition primaries but was prevented by the regime from running in the elections and who continues to lead the protest movement from inside the country. “I want to vindicate the work and effort of María Corina Machado, who led this electoral process of the Unitary Platform, for her work and commitment,” he concluded, before signing off with a laconic “Thank you very much!”

Although Monday marked his first formal message to Venezuelans since he left the country, upon his arrival in Madrid Sunday afternoon González Urrutia released an audio clip in which he denounced that his departure from Caracas “was surrounded by incidences of pressure, coercion, and threats” to prevent him leaving. “I am confident that soon we will continue the struggle for the recovery of democracy and freedom in Venezuela,” he added.

Spain offered indefinite residence in Caracas embassy

Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, revealed Monday that he had offered the opposition candidate the right to remain indefinitely in the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, Ramón Santos, and that it was González Urrutia who decided to go into exile in Spain for security reasons. “I told him that if he wanted to remain in Venezuela he could stay in the residence of the Spanish ambassador as long as he wanted,” Albares told Spanish broadcaster Onda Cero from China, where he is accompanying Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on an official visit.

“[Former Venezuelan opposition leader] Leopoldo López was with this government for a year and a half before arriving in Spain,” he added, referring to the leader of the Voluntad Popular party, who arrived in Madrid in October 2020 after spending almost 19 months as a refugee in the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Venezuela.

“We would have done exactly the same [as with López]. I think he is better off in Spain than in the ambassador’s residence indefinitely, in a semi-clandestine regime or, let’s not even mention the possibility, in prison. And that is what was mattered. What we did was to attend to his request,” Albares insisted.

The head of Spanish diplomacy also contradicted claims made by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who accused him on the social network Telegram of lying by saying “there was no political negotiation” between the two governments to agree on the departure of the opposition candidate.

“The only contacts that have taken place have been of an operational nature. I repeat this very clearly: there has not been any kind of political negotiation between the government of Spain and the government of Venezuela. In other words, there has not been any compensation for Edmundo González to be able to leave the country,” Albares said. According to the Foreign Ministry, these operational contacts were limited to obtaining the relevant authorizations so that the Spanish Air Force plane that brought the opposition leader to Madrid could fly over Venezuelan air space and land in Caracas; and also to guarantee, through a safe-conduct pass, that he could travel safely to the airport and leave the country.

González Urrutia had been a “guest” of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Caracas since July 29, the day after the elections, something that the Venezuelan authorities have complained about as they were not informed by the diplomatic legation. Last Thursday, he moved to the residence of the Spanish ambassador in a nearby building. Albares stated that the only conversations he has had about this matter have been with González Urrutia himself. On the first occasion, to ensure that he wanted to go into exile in Spain as Ambassador Santos had informed him. The second was during the stopover the opposition candidate made on his way to Madrid in the Dominican Republic.

According to Spanish asylum law, the Venezuelan politician has a maximum of one month from his entry into Spain to appear in person before the Ministry of the Interior and submit the corresponding request for asylum. But Albares has already announced that he will be granted asylum and that he will be able to enjoy all his rights, including freedom of expression and demonstration. The minister insisted that this was an “extreme humanitarian situation,” involving “a 76-year-old person who was accompanied by his wife and had an arrest warrant for very serious crimes” against him in Venezuela.

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