Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Sunday that Spain will grant the former presidential candidate of the Venezuelan opposition, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiathe asylum he has requested.
Albares He announced this decision in statements to journalists in Muscat, where the Spanish Air Force plane in which the President of the Government was travelling, Pedro Sanchezleading a delegation that included the minister, made a stopover on his trip to China.
LOOK: Edmundo González Urrutia leaves Venezuela after receiving political asylum from Spain
The head of Spanish diplomacy, who confirmed that Gonzalez was flying towards Spain At the request of the opposition leader himself, he explained that he has also asked to be included in the right of asylum “Of course,” he stressed, “the Spanish Government will process and grant it.”
He said he had spoken with Edmundo Gonzalez once he was on the Spanish Air Force plane in which the Venezuelan opposition leader was travelling and the latter expressed his gratitude.
“I have also conveyed to him our joy that he is well, that he is on his way to Spainand I have reiterated the Government’s commitment to political rights, freedom of expression and demonstration, and the physical integrity of all Venezuelans.”he added.
Asked whether the decision was made because there were fears for González’s physical integrity, Albares He stressed that it had been adopted at his request. After spending some time at the residence of the Spanish Embassy in Caracasalthough he said he could not give further details on the matter.
He insisted that in response to the request, the Spanish Government guaranteed that it would use all diplomatic and material means to make it effective and it has been carried out when he considered it appropriate that it was the time to leave. Venezuela.
In this regard, diplomatic sources assured that there has been no negotiation between the Spanish and Venezuelan governments. nor between Pedro Sánchez and Nicolás Maduro directly.
Albares He did stress that the position of Spain in view of the situation in Venezuela does not suffer any change and continues to demand the presentation of the electoral records of the last presidential elections so that they can be verified, because otherwise no supposed victory can be recognized.
The determination is that there be a peaceful and “genuinely Venezuelan” solution as a result of dialogue and negotiation between the Government of Ripe and the opposition.
He added that Spain will not close the door to any Venezuelan and recalled that more than 100,000 have benefited from the special status that practically does not exist for any other country.
“The doors of Spain towards a sister country like Venezuela will always be open, as the doors of the residence of the Embassy of Spain have been for Edmundo Gonzalez“, he said.
The decision to welcome Gonzalez by part of Spain It was announced hours after Pedro Sánchez, in his speech at the meeting of the PSOE Federal Committee, said that Edmundo González is “a hero whom Spain will not abandon.”
