Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez fled to Madrid on a Spanish military aircraft Sunday, having spent a month in hiding following the country’s widely discredited July 28 election in which President Nicolas Maduro claimed a dubious victory.
Spain offered Gonzalez asylum after Venezuelan prosecutors sought his arrest Monday for conspiracy and criminal association, which carry a possible 30-year prison sentence. The charges stem from the uploading of voting records showing that Gonzalez, and not Maduro, won the election by nearly 70%.
Gonzalez was a stand-in for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who had been barred from running. His departure is the latest blow to the Venezuelan opposition: Since the vote, 2,400 protesters and four prominent opposition politicians have been arrested, and Maduro recently appointed hardliner Diosdado Cabello, who called Gonzalez “a coup-mongering “rat” as interior minister.
The election shenanigans are also causing tension with Argentina. Late Friday, Venezuelan security forces surrounded the Argentinian embassy in Caracas, where six opposition workers have been holed up since March. The following day, Venezuela revoked permission for Brazil to manage the embassy, as it had been doing since the expulsion of Argentinian diplomats earlier this year. The announcement came hours after Argentina announced that on Monday it would ask the International Criminal Court to arrest Maduro on charges of crimes against humanity.
We’ll be watching how the court reacts – and whether Maduro cracks down further.
