Opposition leader María Corina Machado vows to stay in Venezuela

Opposition leader María Corina Machado vowed Monday to remain in Venezuela, a day after her colleague and presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia took up asylum in Spain claiming post-election repression.

"I have decided to stay in Venezuela and take part in the struggle from here while he [González Urrutia] does it from abroad," Machado, who is in hiding, told reporters via videoconference.

Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, arrived in Madrid late Sunday after weeks in hiding following a July 28 presidential election that the opposition insists he won, but which was claimed by incumbent Nicolás Maduro.

"We all know that Edmundo González Urrutia is the elected president of Venezuela... whether he is in Venezuela or anywhere else in the world," said Machado.

The fact that he is now abroad "does not change anything: legitimacy is maintained, the strategy is the same," she insisted.

After his arrival in Spain, González Urrutia said he had decided to leave "so that things can change and so we can build a new stage for Venezuela."

Machado had said he left the country because "his life was in danger."

"Only the policy of dialogue will enable us to reunite as compatriots," González Urrutia wrote in a letter addressed to Venezuelans and posted on social media network X.

"I have taken this decision thinking of Venezuela and that our destiny as a country cannot, must not, be that of a conflict of pain and suffering."

Maduro, who had previously called for his opponent and Machado to be jailed after the election, expressed "respect" in a televised message Monday for González Urrutia's decision and wished him well "in his new life."

Maduro said he had headed the process that had led to González Urrutia's departure "in the pursuit of consolidating peace."

González Urrutia had replaced Machado on the ballot at the last minute after she was prevented from running by institutions loyal to Maduro, which are accused by observers of human rights violations.

Venezuela's regime-loyal National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the election winner, but the opposition cried foul and much of the international community has refused to accept the result.

At risk of prison

Machado remains mostly in hiding, but has led a handful of anti-Maduro protests since the disputed vote.

Prosecutors had opened an investigation against González Urrutia for crimes related to his insistence that he was the rightful election victor.

Charges include usurpation of public functions, forgery of a public document, incitement to disobedience, sabotage, and association with organised crime.

He risks a prison sentence of 30 years.

The charges stem from the opposition publishing its own tally of polling station-level ballots cast, which it says showed González Urrutia winning about two-thirds of votes.

Venezuela's electoral authority has said it cannot provide a breakdown of the election results, blaming a cyber attack on its systems.

Observers have said there is no evidence of such hacking.

Post-election violence in Venezuela has claimed 27 lives and left 192 people wounded, while the government says it has arrested about 2,400 people.

The office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague said Monday it was monitoring "current developments" in Venezuela.

Human rights NGOs on Monday urged the United Nations to alter the mandate of an international fact-finding mission on Venezuela to include the post-election violence.

"Venezuelans are facing a violent crackdown on voters and protesters, political leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and other actual or perceived alleged opponents of the Maduro administration," the groups said in a joint appeal.

Maduro's government has led a crackdown on dissent since the election, with parliament debating a new set of laws to take on "fascism," a term the regime has often used to denote the opposition.

"Venezuela has to make severe, hard anti-fascist laws, because here hate, violence, division, persecution of people for their ideas, for their way of thinking and being cannot proliferate," Maduro said on Monday.

After Venezuela's last election, in 2018, Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud.

With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.

Maduro's tenure since 2013 has seen GDP drop 80 percent in a decade, prompting more than seven million of the country's 30 million citizens to migrate.

– TIMES/AFP