Enrique Marquez regrets the departure of Edmundo Gonzalez

Former presidential candidate Enrique Márquez regretted this Thursday that the standard-bearer of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia, has “had to make” the decision to leave the country last weekend heading to Spain after having been subjected to “pressures.”

“I condemn and denounce the pressures he was subjected to (…) that led to his departure from the country, and I also regret the decision he had to make because Venezuela undoubtedly needs all of us, all of us who want change, (…) to be here, treading our territory and building alternative solutions,” he said at a press conference.

Enrique Márquez rejected political persecution

He also rejected what he considers to be “political persecution mechanisms that have been imposed” in the country after the elections against “countless political activists who participated on July 28” from “all parties.”

Márquez asked the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, to “read” and “review” Article 49 of the Constitution, which establishes, among other things, that “every person is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.”

“It cannot be that from the microphones of a press conference someone’s guilt is determined, he is persecuted and his right to defense is denied, as well as due process,” said the opponent.

González Urrutia was summoned three times by the Prosecutor’s Office to appear in connection with an investigation into alleged “usurpation of functions, forgery of public documents” and “conspiracy”, among other crimes, according to the summons, which the former ambassador did not attend, after which an arrest warrant was issued against him.

The opposition leader’s defense argues that he did not appear at any of the three summons due to the “degree of defenselessness in which he finds himself,” among other factors, due to the prequalification of crimes.

The opposition leader requested asylum, considering that he was suffering political and judicial persecution after the presidential elections, whose official victory was awarded by the National Electoral Council to Nicolás Maduro, a result later validated by the Supreme Court of Justice, although questioned inside and outside the country.

On Sunday, the former ambassador He said that his departure “was surrounded by episodes of pressure, coercion and threats.”