Edmundo González Urrutia is part of the enormous Venezuelan diaspora.
With his decision to go into exile in Spain, the opposition candidate in the presidential elections of July 28 has not only joined the 7.7 million Venezuelans who have left their country, but also those 1.5 million who have obtained asylum or refugee status in other nationsaccording to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
González Urrutia’s departure came after an anti-terrorist court ordered his arrest early last week for refusing to appear before the Prosecutor’s Office, which had announced its intention to prosecute him for participating in the operation that allowed the opposition to publish, on a website, 80% of the minutes of the election results.
The opposition claims that the 75-year-old diplomat was the winner of the elections. However, despite this evidence, the National Electoral Council (CNE) first, and the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) later, declared the candidate for reelection, Nicolás Maduro, the winner. a decision questioned by the international community.
According to Spanish authorities, González Urrutia was the one who asked to leave the country.
“I told him that if he wanted to continue in Venezuela he could stay at the residence of the Spanish ambassador as long as he wanted,” said the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Miguel Albares, on Monday. He denied any “political negotiation” with the Venezuelan authorities.
A version that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez refuted.
“Extensive discussions and contacts took place “to operationalize the departure of the opposition leader González Urrutia from the country with the full guarantees offered by a safe conduct, the product of the agreement between both governments,” wrote Maduro’s second in command on her Telegram channel.
History and blood
With the arrival of González Urrutia, the number of opposition leaders who have ended up being welcomed in the European country in the last five years also grows.
Before the arrival of the presidential candidate, there were already more than a dozen anti-Chavez politicians in Iberian lands. Among the most notable are the former mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo López; the former metropolitan mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma; the former president of Parliament, Julio Borges; the deputy Dinorah Figuera and the activist Lorent Saleh.
But not only opponents have received protection from Madrid, but also former high-ranking Chavista leaders such as the former Minister of the Interior, General Miguel Rodríguez Torres; the former Ombudsman, Gabriela Ramírez or the former Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Díaz.
But why did you choose Spain?
“Because it is a country with the same language, the same religion and a similar culture.which is why we are very close, and also because of the Spanish emigration that took place to Venezuela in the mid-20th century, which has meant that many Venezuelans have one or another family or emotional connection with Spain,” Professor Jorge Rodríguez Virgili, professor of Political Communication at the University of Navarra (Spain), explained to BBC Mundo.
The international law expert Mariano del Alba expressed similar opinions, saying that “close historical and cultural ties” explain why there is a large Venezuelan community in Spain today, which in turn has facilitated the arrival of opposition politicians.
“Many of the opponents who have gone into exile in Spain have done so fundamentally because members of His family was already living there.”That was the case of López and it is now the case of González Urrutia, who has a daughter living in Madrid for many years,” he added.
For the second half of 2022 it was estimated that 251,961 Venezuelans resided in Spainaccording to the National Statistics Institute of that country (INE). The figure does not include those who have Spanish nationality because they are descendants of emigrants from that country.
A diplomat who was stationed at the Spanish embassy in Caracas and who asked not to reveal his identity, offered another explanation for the arrival of the opposition and dissident Chavistas in the European country.
“The Venezuelan issue is almost a matter of domestic rather than foreign policy in Spain”said the former member of the legation in Venezuela.
“It is a constant element of dispute between the government and the opposition; but in recent years, regardless of who governs (the conservative Popular Party or the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) there has been institutional solidarity with the opposition leadership,” he added.
During the government of Mariano Rajoy (2011-2018), Ledezma and López’s parents were granted asylum. During the current socialist administration of Pedro Sánchez, López himself, Ortega Díaz, Rodríguez Torres, Borges and now González Urrutia have obtained asylum, to mention the best known.
Greater security and peace of mind
Rodríguez Virgili also believes that the Spanish political regime is attractive for persecuted Venezuelan leaders.
“Spain is a consolidated state of law, where there is freedom of expression and assembly and legal security.in which there are some rights that are respected,” he noted.
This argument was supported by Luisa Ortega Díaz.
“Any country where the legal system is respected offers legal security, and therefore gives you peace of mind, you have the certainty that this State will not trample on you or violate your human rights,” explained the former attorney general when BBC Mundo asked her why she requested asylum in the European country.
But Rodríguez Virgili believes that not only the Spanish democratic system is a magnet, but also its economic situation.
“In Spain there is financial security, for example in terms of deposits and property, and that does not occur in other latitudes, especially in Latin America,” said the expert from the University of Navarra.
“In Spain you don’t have to learn another language and you arrive in a European country that It offers levels of development and opportunities far superior to those of other Spanish-speaking countries.”, Ortega Díaz said.
The former president of discord
The Spanish press claims that the former Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, played a crucial role in González Urrutia’s departure from Venezuela.
And although this version has not been confirmed by him or by the governments involved, it would not be surprising if it were so, since in recent years the former socialist leader has mediated in similar operations. One of the last ones materialized in January 2023, when General Rodríguez Torres was released from prison and subsequently transferred to Spain..
The official, who served as Interior Minister under Maduro and as head of the secret services for more than a decade under the late Hugo Chávez, was arrested in 2018, accused of conspiracy, and spent nearly five years behind bars.
But why Rodriguez Zapatero? Since 2016, the former Spanish leader has participated in several attempts at dialogue between the government and the Venezuelan opposition, some of them with the approval not only of Madrid but also of Washington, recalled the Spanish diplomatic sources consulted.
“Dialogue should be resumed in order to make progress on what I consider to be most important, which is to recover basic consensus, the spirit of coexistence and the recognition of one side towards the other,” Zapatero declared in 2021.
Furthermore, during his government (2004-2012) he signed important contracts with Chávez, such as the one that allowed Spain to build eight ships for the Venezuelan Navy, despite opposition from the United States.
And it also helped to resolve impasses such as the famous “Why don’t you shut up? that the then King Juan Carlos I said to the late Bolivarian leader at the XVII Ibero-American Summit held in Santiago, Chile, in 2007.
According to those consulted, these events allowed Rodríguez Zapatero to win points among some Chavista leaders, in particular with the brothers Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez, president of Parliament and vice president of the country, respectively.
However, there are some in the opposition who are wary of him.
“Zapatero seeks to whitewash the dictatorship”denounced in 2019 the then deputy Juan Guaidó, who was recognized by more than fifty countries as interim president of Venezuela.
Borges, who participated in some of the negotiations in which the former Spanish president intervened, does not consider him an impartial mediator.
For him, the former president’s silence on what happened in the presidential elections of July 28 is inconceivable.
“The big question that must be asked of Zapatero is whether there was fraud or not., because he was there”said.
Rodríguez Zapatero was invited by the Venezuelan government to observe the last presidential elections. However, he has not said anything about what happened.
Meanwhile, other observers, such as those from the Carter Center and the United Nations Panel of Experts, have publicly stated that the official results are not credible.
Click here to read more stories from BBC News Mundo.
You can also follow us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and on our new channel WhatsAppwhere you’ll find breaking news and our best content.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
- Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González arrives in Spain after leaving his country and receiving political asylum from the Spanish government
- How the opposition and María Corina Machado are doing in Venezuela after the political asylum granted to candidate Edmundo González in Spain
- Who forms the circle of power around Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela?