Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate flees to exile in Spain

The surprise departure of the man who Venezuela’s opposition and several foreign governments consider the legitimate winner of July’s presidential race was announced by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez late on Saturday night.

She said the government decided to grant Mr Gonzalez safe passage out of the country, just days after ordering his arrest, to help restore “the country’s political peace and tranquillity”.

Mr Gonzalez arrived on Sunday at a military airport near Madrid, accompanied by his wife and Spanish officials, Spain’s foreign ministry said.

Hours later, he sent a short voice message to supporters thanking them for their support.

“My departure from Caracas was surrounded by acts of pressure, coercion and threats,” he said. “I trust that we will soon continue our fight to achieve our freedom and the restoration of Venezuela’s democracy.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Mr Gonzalez feared for his life if he stayed in Venezuela.

“His life was in danger, and the growing threats, legal citations, arrest orders, and even blackmail attempts that he was subjected to demonstrate that the regime has no scruples or limits in its obsession to silence him and try to break him,” Ms Machado wrote on X.

Spain’s centre-left government said the decision to leave Venezuela was Mr Gonzalez’s alone, and he departed on a plane sent by the country’s air force. He stayed at the Spanish embassy in Caracas before leaving.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish national broadcaster RTVE that his government will grant Mr Gonzalez political asylum as he requested. Mr Albares spoke from Oman while en route to China with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on a state visit.

“I have been able to speak to (Mr Gonzalez), and once he was aboard the airplane, he expressed his gratitude toward the Spanish government and Spain,” Mr Albares said. “Of course, I told him we were pleased that he is well and on his way to Spain, and I reiterated the commitment of our government to the political rights of all Venezuelans.”

In a speech before Mr Gonzalez’s departure was announced, Mr Sanchez said the opposition leader was “a hero whom Spain is not going to abandon”.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, in a statement on Sunday described it as “a sad day for democracy in Venezuela”.

Mr Borrell added that Mr Gonzalez “appears to be the winner of the presidential elections” and that the EU will maintain its support of the Venezuelan people “in their democratic aspirations”.

In a letter sent on Sunday to lawmakers, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp said that the Netherlands had given Mr Gonzalez refuge shortly after the election at its embassy.

He added that Mr Gonzalez said at the beginning of September that he wanted to leave the country “and continue his fight from Spain”.

The 75-year-old former diplomat was a last-minute stand-in when Ms Machado was banned from running. Previously unknown to most Venezuelans, he nonetheless rapidly ignited the hopes of millions of Venezuelans desperate for change after a decade-long economic freefall.

While President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the July vote, most Western governments, including Spain, have yet to recognise his victory and are instead demanding that authorities publish a breakdown of votes.

Meanwhile, tally sheets collected by opposition volunteers from over two-thirds of the electronic voting machines indicate that Mr Gonzalez won by a more than two-to-one margin.

The tally sheets have long been considered the ultimate proof of election results in Venezuela.

In previous presidential elections, the National Electoral Council published online the results of each of the more than 30,000 voting machines but the Maduro-controlled panel did not release any data this time, blaming an alleged cyberattack mounted by its opponents from North Macedonia.