Venezuela’s González ‘forced’ to accept Maduro election win
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González has claimed that he was “forced” to acknowledge President Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the disputed July election in order to be granted asylum in Spain. In a video message, González alleged that Maduro’s aides pressured him into signing a letter while he was seeking refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas earlier this month.
Conversely, Jorge Rodríguez, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly and a close ally of Maduro, asserted that González signed the letter voluntarily. Electoral authorities loyal to Maduro declared him the winner, a result contested by González and several international observers.
In a video message from Madrid posted on X on Wednesday, the 75-year-old González described being coerced under intense pressure, stating, “I had to either sign it or face the consequences.” He characterized the signed letter as “worthless” and expressed that he believed he could be more effective if he were free rather than imprisoned.
Now granted asylum in Spain, González referred to himself as the “president-elect of millions of Venezuelans who voted for change, democracy, and peace,” and promised to honor that mandate.
Following González’s remarks, Rodríguez presented the letter and insisted that it was signed of González’s own free will. At a press conference in Caracas on Wednesday, Rodríguez also gave González “24 hours” to retract his statements or face the release of audio recordings that would counter the opposition candidate’s claims. Rodríguez questioned how González’s daughter could remain in Venezuela without issues if González had indeed signed under duress.
“Venezuelans can think in one way or another and all of them have a place in the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Here there’s no place for violence or fascism,” Rodríguez said.
He also showed photos of an alleged meeting between himself, Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez and González at the Spanish embassy in Caracas on the eve of the opposition candidate’s departure earlier this month.
Prior to his departure for Spain, a Venezuelan judge had issued an arrest warrant for González, accusing him of conspiracy and of forging documents, among other “serious crimes” – all things Gonzalez denied.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) claims Maduro, 61, won 52% of the vote in the 28 July elections. It gave González 43%.
The opposition, however, said it had evidence González had won by a comfortable margin, and uploaded detailed voting tallies to the internet which suggest González beat Maduro convincingly.
The US, the EU and the majority of foreign governments have refused to accept Mr Maduro as the winner without Caracas releasing detailed voting data to prove the result.
The CNE has said it cannot publish the voting records because the data has been corrupted by hackers.
