Maria Corina Machado on her stay in Venezuela

“I have decided to stay in Venezuela and support the struggle from here while he does it from abroad,” said Maria Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition.

Machado also called on the international community on Monday to recognize the opposition’s standard-bearer, Edmundo González Urrutia, as the country’s “president-elect.”

“We have asked the international community, and we reaffirm today more than ever, to proceed with the recognition of Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect,” said the former deputy, the main ally of the leader of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).

In his opinion, the “pressures” and “coercion” reported by the former candidate during his departure from Venezuela to Spain this weekend, after requesting asylum and granting him safe conduct by the Maduro government, increase “the urgency for his “recognition” to be carried out.

Machado stressed that today “not a single democratic government” has “recognized the fraud of Nicolás Maduro,” and assured that “the bases of the (ruling) United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the Armed Forces and the police,” as well as countries “allied to the regime,” know that González Urrutia “is the president-elect, and he will be president whether he is in Venezuela or anywhere in the world.”

He stated that, despite the departure of the leader of the PUD, whose details will be announced “in due time”, the “agenda and strategy remain” and will be developed with “intelligence, resilience, boldness and prudence.”

“If Edmundo’s departure changes anything, from any perspective, it is that it may increase the risk for me. I don’t know, but in any case I have decided to remain in Venezuela and support the fight from here while he does so from abroad,” he said.

The opposition leader reiterated her call to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and the police forces to “fulfill their duty, which is to uphold popular sovereignty, and not act in violation of human rights.”