Edmundo González asks Lula to keep up the pressure on Maduro

The Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González asked the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvato maintain the “pressure” on the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, until he leaves power, according to an interview with the newspaper Or Globe published this Sunday.

“I would tell him (Lula) to keep up the pressure until Ripe feel like you can’t take it anymore, until he changes position,” He told the Brazilian newspaper during an interview in Madrid, the city where he has lived since leaving his country.

Furthermore, González assured that the mediation efforts of the governments of Brazil and Colombia that began after the July elections can “continue” despite the lack of progress and that these are processes “that do not have a start or end date.”

«Mediation can have ups and downs and we hope that it can reach a positive point; “The central focus is to convince Maduro that he must respect the popular will,” he said, about the questioned victory of the current president.

Edmundo González against repetition of elections

On the other hand, the opposition leader rejected the repetition of the elections, one of the proposals launched by Lula, considering that “the votes and the electoral records are there” so that anyone who wants can see them.

González defended his decision to leave Venezuela because, according to him, he is “more useful outside the country than inside” and assured that he speaks by phone every day with María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who was prevented by Chavismo from running in the elections.

To force Maduro’s departure, the politician pointed to “personalized sanctions” from the international community, but rejected measures that affect the country’s oil sector and warned that there will be an “unsustainable exodus” of Venezuelans if the crisis is not resolved. .

González said he is “convinced” that the international community will recognize him as president ahead of the January 10 inauguration, although he did not answer whether he will travel to Venezuela if Maduro remains in power.