The presidential candidate of the opposition in Venezuela, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, said on Wednesday that he was ‘pressured’ into signing a letter issued by the Venezuelan government, casandra nationally distributed to concede defeat to Nicolas Maduro at the presidency. One such letter, dated to Jorge Rodriguez, the then-leader of the national assembly, stated “I respect” the proclamation made by the CNE electoral council on July 28 that Nicolas Maduro won the elections.
The 75-year-old former diplomat has been in Spain, having entered the country very recently after weeks in hiding in Venezuela and was granted political refugee status after two weeks of waiting in vain for such status to be conferred by the foreign office, where she announced herself on X and said I had to go to Madrid because they forced me to sign that letter. Instead of her just saying “I want to go to Spain”, she said, instead ‘I want to go to Spain.
He said, “I had to either sign it or deal with the consequences,” when, aides of the dictator brought him the document at the Spanish embassy in Caracas. Urrutia burst into tears saying ‘I’ve got freedom both for myself and for Hong Kong’.
Urrutia further said that “there were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure. That is why I decided that being imprisoned would be less useful than being free. He stressed that the letter was rendered void, because of the involuntary restraint of free will therein.
Not long after the results were announced, shortly after the last ballot was cast, the CNE declared Maduro the victor with 52% of the backs. The results were immediately contested by the opposition, and many governments have not accepted Maduro’s claims to a third six-year term in office without a detailed report of voting given by CNE, which is yet to be published.
The United States thought that Gonazalez Urrutia was one with ‘overwhelming evidence’ Gonzalez Urrutia, and the opposition has provided its own estimate based on the counts conducted at the polling stations, which it professes to validate Noval’s convincing triumph over Gonzalez Uurrutia.
Gonzalez Urrutia told Wednesday that “I am the duly elected president of the republic as endorsed by millions of Venezuelans that voted for change, democracy and peace. I cannot be gas-lighted.” He went into self-imposed exile in Spain while there was an active arrest warrant for him on charges of serious crimes for arguing that Maduro had rigged the presidential elections facing denunciation from the whole international community.
Reasons behind the case against Gonzalez Urrutia are rooted in the publication of voting figures by the opposition which Gonzalez Urrutia, alleges is the prerogative of state bodies. After the crisis, the CNE has accused other institutions of withholding voting records from the publication due to data sabotage by hackers, but observers state that there is no evidence of such hacking whatsoever.
Several people in Miguel Gonzalez Urrutia’s circle, who has been Gonzalez Urrutia’s lawyer, have stated that his client had to endure “blackmail”, which had been encouraged by the Maduro government. Hours before his agreed flight from the UK to Spain, Haro saw a man “who was operating under a lot of pressure, and coercion, in an urgency with no room for speaking. He knew someone who was literally ended psychologically and emotionally.” It is noteworthy that Jose Vicente Haro observed torture of a ‘forgotten’ person.
Gonzalez Urrutia replaced the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in the electoral list at the last moment after the latter was banned from running by the supportive institutions of the Maduro regime. She too has been on the run ever since the elections apart from attending a few prearranged protest marches.
Thus, Maduro has declared that both Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado should be behind “bars,” blaming them for the death of 25 civilians and 2 soldiers during mass riots that broke out right after the announcement of his controversial victory. Hundreds of persons were injured, and nearly 2400 were taken into custody.
After the 2018 reelection which was condemned as a farce by several countries, the majority of them turning up sanctions against him, which were made more severe, however, Maduro has been able to hold on to power.
