Venezuelan opposition says Edmundo Gonzalez will remain 'clear voice' in Spanish exile

MADRID (Reuters) – Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez will remain a “very clear voice” pushing for change in his country despite fleeing to seek asylum in Spain, exiled opposition members Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo Lopez told Reuters on Tuesday.

With widespread international backing for his victory in the July 28 election that incumbent Nicolas Maduro says he won, Gonzalez could also still return to take office on Jan. 10, they said.

Ledezma, a longtime Venezuelan opposition leader and former mayor of the capital Caracas’s metropolis, said Gonzalez’s flight from the country would strengthen the cause.

“Edmundo will be free, he will not be confined within four walls, as in Venezuela, and he will be able to lead the struggle for Venezuela’s freedom by heading the diaspora,” Ledezma told Reuters.

Venezuelan exiles gathered outside the Spanish parliament on Tuesday as Spanish lawmakers debated a symbolic motion from the main opposition party to recognise Gonzalez as winner of the elections. The motion is expected to be approved on Wednesday.

Venezuela’s opposition say the July election resulted in a resounding victory for 75-year-old Gonzalez, and published vote tallies online they say show he won.

Maduro has dismissed all such assertions and says there was a right-wing plot to sabotage his government.

Ledezma said Gonzalez, who has not been seen in public since he flew into Spain on Sunday, was “safe, free and alive” and “getting stabilized” after some intense days.

“The most important thing is for him to be alive so that he can make it to January 10 and be sworn in,” he said.

Leopoldo Lopez, who was jailed in 2014 for leading protests against Maduro before being released in 2017 and moving to Spain, called for oil and personal sanctions to be applied to his government by US and the European Union.

“Today Maduro has a line of oxygen because of the licenses that have allowed American and European companies to extract and sell Venezuelan oil at full price,” he said.

Several hundred people, including Gonzalez’s daughter, gathered outside the Spanish parliament in Madrid with Venezuelan flags, chanting “Brave Venezuela” and “Edmundo, president.”

The Spanish government has not recognised a winner in the Venezuelan poll, but asked for vote tallies to be published, in line with the European Union’s position.

“(We will) keep working on solutions to improve democracy in Venezuela and of course approve the asylum requested by Edmundo Gonzalez and his wife,” spokesperson Pilar Alegria said.

(Writing by Emma Pinedo, editing by Aislinn Laing and Alistair Bell)