Venezuelan opposition leader flees to Spain after disputed election

The leader of Venezuela’s opposition has fled to Spain, where he has been granted political asylum.

Edmundo González Urrutia arrived in Madrid at around 4.30pm local time on Sunday on a Spanish Air Force plane.

The 75-year-old has been in hiding since elections were held in Venezuela in July with a government crackdown on opposition figures soon following.

Rights groups say Venezuelan authorities have been committing widespread violations against critics, including carrying out arbitrary arrests and violence against them.

On Sept 2, a judge issued an arrest warrant against Mr González for “conspiracy,” ”incitement to disobedience” and other crimes after he disputed the election result.

Mr González fled to the Dutch embassy, where he sought refuge for more than a month before staying at the home of Spain’s ambassador. Before the July 28 election, Mr González was a political unknown, but he was the only person left to run against Nicolás Maduro after the government banned all other opposition candidates.

Venezuela’s socialist government announced that Mr Maduro had won a third six-year mandate with 52 per cent of the vote, but it has not yet published the official results. Venezuela’s opposition’s own tallies show Mr Gonzalez winning with 67 per cent of the vote.

The US, the EU and major Latin American governments have refused to recognise Mr Maduro’s claim to victory. Mass protests have led to at least 27 deaths and 2,400 arrests.

José Manuel Albares, the Spanish foreign minister, told reporters that Spain had responded positively to an asylum request from Mr González and denied that Madrid had negotiated the move with Venezuela’s government.

Speaking on Saturday before Mr González’s move into exile, Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, described the retired diplomat as “a hero whom Spain will not abandon”.

However, Right-wing politicians criticised the move.

“Bringing Edmundo González here without recognising him as the legitimate president does no favours to democracy, but rather removes a problem for the dictatorship,” said Esteban González Pons, a spokesman for the People’s Party, which has said it will force a vote over recognising Mr González as Venezuela’s leader.