Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González has left the South American country after seeking asylum in Spain, according to the Spanish foreign minister.
“Edmundo González, at his own request, flew to Spain on a Spanish air force plane,” José Manuel Albares said in a statement online, adding that the “government of Spain is committed to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans”.
The surprise departure by the candidate, who Venezuela’s opposition and several foreign governments consider the legitimate winner of July’s presidential election, comes just days after the government ordered his arrest.
Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodriguez said González, who ran against president Nicolas Maduro in July, left after “voluntarily seeking refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas several days ago”.
She said the government Maduro, which had ordered the candidate’s arrest, decided to grant González safe passage out of the country to contribute to the country’s political peace.
A lawyer for Gonzalez confirmed to AFP the opposition candidate had departed for Spain.
González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, was a last minute stand in when opposition leader María Corina Machado was banned from running. Previously unknown to most Venezuelans, his campaign nonetheless rapidly ignited the hopes of millions of Venezuelans desperate for change after a decade long economic freefall.
While Maduro was declared the winner of the July vote, many governments have yet to recognise his victory and are instead demanding that authorities publish a breakdown of votes. Tally sheets collected by opposition volunteers from over two-thirds of the electronic voting machines indicate that González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
Post-election violence in Venezuela has claimed 27 lives and left 192 people injured, while the government says it has arrested about 2,400 people.
After the election, Venezuelan prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez over his insistence that he was the rightful winner of the election. Prior to leaving the country, he had been in hiding for a month, ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors. He had said that attending the hearing could have cost his freedom.
His exit from the country comes on a day of rising diplomatic tensions in Venezuela.
On Saturday the government revoked Brazil’s authorisation to represent Argentine interests in the country, including administering the embassy where six other opposition figures are sheltering.
Venezuela broke relations with Argentina following the disputed presidential election. In a statement, Venezuela said the decision was effective immediately, and was due to proof that the embassy was being used to plan assassination attempts against Maduro and Rodriguez.
Brazil said it had received the communication that its authorisation had been revoked “with surprise.” Argentina said it rejected the “unilateral” decision. Both countries urged Maduro to respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
With Reuters and the Associated Press