Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado assured on Monday, the day after the exile in Spain of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, that she would “stay in Venezuela” to continue “the fight” for power.
“I decided to stay in Venezuela and accompany the struggle from here, while he (Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia) leads it from outside”said Maria Corina Machado, who has been living in hiding since the announcement of the disputed results of the presidential election on July 28, during a videoconference.
She said she did not know whether the departure of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia “may increase risk” for her. “We all know that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is the elected president of Venezuela. And he will remain so, whether he is in Venezuela or anywhere else in the world.”she said. The fact that he is no longer in Venezuela “absolutely nothing changes: legitimacy is maintained, the strategy is the same”she assured.
Arrest warrant
Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who is under arrest for claiming victory in the presidential election against Nicolas Maduro, surprisingly left Venezuela for Spain on Sunday, where he requested political asylum.
Maria Corina Machado had won the opposition primary but had been unable to run because she had been declared ineligible by the government. Mr Gonzalez Urrutia, a discreet 75-year-old former ambassador, then unknown to the general public, had agreed to replace her at short notice. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, whose victory was validated by the Venezuelan Supreme Court on August 22 – considered to be at the beck and call of the government – was proclaimed the winner with 52% of the vote by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which has not, however, made public the minutes of the polling stations.
According to the opposition, which published the minutes provided by its scrutineers, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes. The repression of the spontaneous demonstrations that followed the announcement of Nicolas Maduro’s re-election left 27 dead and 192 injured. Some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources.
