Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has assured, a day after Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia fled to Spain, that she herself will remain in the country and “fight” for power.
“I decided to stay in Venezuela and coordinate the match from here, while he (s.a. Gonzalez Urrutia) will conduct it from abroad,” he said in an interview he gave via video call. Machado has been in hiding since the results of the July 28 presidential election, which she disputes, were announced and Nicolas Maduro’s victory was confirmed.
Urrutia, who has already sought political asylum in Spain, explained today that he left “to change things” and called for “dialogue” in an open letter on the X platform.
“Only the politics of dialogue will allow us to reunite as compatriots,” said the opposition presidential candidate in the recent election.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office called on Caracas to “respect the rule of law” after Urrutia fled. Without naming him, the ICC stressed that “all persons must be protected against violations that may constitute crimes under the Rome Statute.”
In the protests that followed Maduro’s controversial re-election, 27 people were killed and 192 injured, while nearly 2,400 were arrested. An arrest warrant had been issued against Urutia since September 2 after the prosecutor’s office conducted an investigation for “disobedience to the laws”, “conspiracy” and “sabotage”.
Machado said the 75-year-old former ambassador was forced to leave “to preserve his freedom and his life.”
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