A year has passed after the controversial presidential election in Venezuela in which the National Electoral Council proclaimed, without presenting any evidence, Nicolás Maduro as winner of the contest.
The Venezuelan opposition, which had compiled the voting records, was then given the task of demonstrating that it was actually its candidate, Edmundo González, who had obtained a broad triumph with 67% of the votes.
On July 29, 2024, one day after the election, thousands of Venezuelans from all sectors of the country took to the streets to defend the triumph of their candidate, a man who in a couple of months won not only the vote, but also the heart of many in the South American nation.
All of that generated a political and diplomatic crisis that a year later seems to have no end.
Exiled in Madrid since September, Edmundo González Urrutia (75 years, La Victoria, Aragua State) is today considered the elected president of Venezuela by a dozen countries of the world, including the United States, Argentina and Peru.
He is also the president for millions of Venezuelans who voted for him and who had put all their hopes of change in him and María Corina Machado, the opposition leader – currently in hiding – whose support was key to promoting González’s candidacy.
On the occasion of the anniversary of the election day of July 28, González speaks with BBC world of his decision to call to refrain in the May regional elections, in which Chavismo was made with 23 of the 24 states of the country, and the municipal of this Sunday, in which Chavism claims to have won in 285 of the 335 municipalities of the country.
In addition, he affirms that he continues to work and “carrying the voice of democratic Venezuela” with the same force that a year ago and talks about a future return to his country.
After the elections a year ago, the opposition you lead with MCM decided to call abstention. That has resolved that the ruling consolidated and increases its institutional power. And there is also a part of the opposition that unchecks its strategy and participates, but with hardly any chances. How does the opposition of this dilemma come out in which it was already in the past? What benefits abstention? Wouldn’t it be better to continue insisting, as they demonstrated in 2024, that there is fraud?
Well, the fraud complaint has never stopped it, everywhere, (neither) inside nor outside the country.
We have taken the message of the theft that was made, of the MegaFraude that was made, in the elections of July 28 of last year.
That is there and it will not be easy to erase it because everyone knows and everyone knows that the minutes reflect reality, some minutes that are stored in the Central Bank of Panama and that at some point we will make public.
But everyone already knows what happened there.
It was a shameless robbery of the government, which feels increasingly isolated by the international community and even by its own followers.
How does the abstention benefit from the opposition and it would not be better to continue pressing and showing that, as you have said, you cannot trust the Venezuelan electoral system?
No, one thing has nothing to do with the other.
We have called to abstention because we are aware that the CNE is a government appendix.
But that does not prevent us from continuing to make the complaint inside and outside the country and carrying the message that more and more people recognize and admit: that what was in Venezuela was a shameless robbery of the popular will of Venezuelans.
What lessons did the opposition learn on July 28 and why seems to have diverted from that strategy to press at the polls and on the street?
We have not stopped pressing, we have maintained the behavior and message of complaint permanently, both in Venezuela and abroad.
Outside it is a message that I have led to an important number of foreign governments and international organizations.
Just one speaks, they already know what happened. It is a confirmation of what they already knew.
They say that Maduro is alone, but beyond Trump’s rhetoric and Marco Rubio, Washington negotiates with Maduro a exchange of prisoners and allows Chevron to continue operating in Venezuela. Isn’t this a blow to the opposition and a clear recognition that Maduro holds power in Venezuela?
No. We are clear.
(We knew) when these conversations began and that it was thanks to them that an important group of Venezuelan prisoners, two hundred and so many, who were and (many of them) continued to be (arrested), because the number is much higher, they are like about 900 political prisoners that there is right now in Venezuela.
And to free them, who are you going to talk to? You have to talk to who has them.
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We continue with the same force, the same effort, the same strategies, perfecting them, carrying the voice of democratic Venezuela to many countries. “
Given that pragmatic approach Trump has in search of the interests of the United States, do you fear that there is an approach between Maduro and Trump, as well as with other regional governments and that, therefore, his cause is forgotten?
Look, I doubt it. I doubt it because it is getting clearer. Yesterday there were statements from Trump himself, who said Maduro continued to send drugs to the United States.
That is, this is a reality that cannot be easily erased and the inequalities of the electoral system either.
Many people abroad, governments, international organizations, know that reality and know that what happened that day was a shameless robbery of the popular will of Venezuelans.
Petro and Lula seemed to be key figures in a negotiation. They pressed Maduro, but in the end nothing happened. What is your conclusion? What happened there in your opinion?
Well, what we have always said, that Maduro has no will to negotiate anything, what interests him is to hold on to power and use any subterfuge to achieve it.
But (we don’t have to) think that with him we will achieve (something).
International pressure has to follow. Thanks to her some advantages have been achieved, but beyond that little.
You are in exile, María Corina Machado in hiding, many of your followers are detained, frightened or disappointed as well. How does the opposition follow from now on?
We continue with the same force, the same effort, the same strategies, perfecting them, carrying the voice of democratic Venezuela to many countries.
Not having been so, perhaps it would not have achieved what has been achieved so far.
Do you have a new date to return to Venezuela?
We never set a date (to return to Venezuela), the date was going to be given based on the necessary conditions to return.
That has not yet happened and, of course, we are not going to risk (making) such a decision.
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