There were no compensations for the departure of Edmundo González

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Monday that the Spanish government had not accepted “any demands nor had there been any negotiations” with Venezuela to facilitate the departure of Edmundo González Urrutia: «With Edmundo in Caracas or Madrid we will not recognize the supposed victory» of Nicolás Maduro.

Albares, in interviews on Spanish radio Onda Cero and on private television Telecinco, insisted that there has been no compensation with the Executive of Nicolás Maduro, only “operational contacts” so that Gonzalez could leave Venezuela and challenged anyone who claims that negotiations have taken place to say so openly.

The minister stressed that neither had Caracas presented any conditions nor would they have accepted them, and reiterated the demand that the Government of the Latin American country deliver the electoral records.

The case of González, he added, involved a humanitarian situation, as he was a 76-year-old man who was the subject of an arrest warrant, “but also a political one,” and what prevailed at all times was “guaranteeing his safety” and his rights.

On how the fact that Edmundo González is seeking asylum in Spain will affect a possible recognition by the EU of the electoral victory claimed by the Venezuelan opposition, the minister recalled that he was very involved in the recognition of the then opposition leader Juan Guaidó in 2019 and in the end it came to nothing.

The objective now, Albares insisted, is to try to facilitate a negotiation between the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition to find a peaceful and democratic solution to this crisis.

Albares was aware that Maduro is not going to hand over the records of the July elections, but he sees options to promote this negotiation since the Venezuelan president is in office until January 10 and when they see that these conversations are not viable, they will move on to “what now?”

The Spanish minister pointed out that the only person he has spoken to has been the opposition leader, who arrived in Madrid on Sunday in an air force plane, and He did this to confirm that he wanted to travel to Spain, where he requested political asylum.

However, the Venezuelan executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez reiterated this Sunday that Venezuela held “extensive conversations” with Spain for the departure of González Urrutia.

“Extensive discussions and contacts took place to operationalize the departure of opposition leader González Urrutia from the country with the full guarantees offered by a safe-conduct pass, the product of the agreement between both governments,” Rodríguez said on his Telegram channel.

Edmundo Gonzalez in Spain

The Venezuelan crisis has become a recurring theme in Spain in the confrontation between the conservative opposition, led by the Popular Party, and the government of socialist Pedro Sánchez.

Leaders of the Popular Party (PP) had asked Spain to grant asylum to Edmundo González, but the Popular Party MEP Esteban González Pons considered this Sunday that asylum to the Venezuelan politician “is not doing a favor to democracy, but removing a problem from the dictatorship” of Nicolás Maduro.

Edmundo González expects to be received in the coming days by the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, and Minister Albares, according to sources close to him who confirmed this to EFE.

The opposition member requested asylum in Spain Considering that in Venezuela he was suffering political and judicial persecution after a court issued an arrest warrant against him following the disclosure of electoral records that would prove the opposition’s victory in the elections of July 28.

González Urrutia remained in safekeeping for a month until September 5 at the Dutch Embassy in Caracas, until he was transferred to the Spanish Embassy, ​​where he remained until this Saturday, when he left for Madrid.