The President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, argued that the former candidate of the opposition extremists, Edmundo González Urrutia, “is a man who does not keep his word.”
“Every day I saw the letter and I saw the things that this man said and the things that he did, and I thought: this man has no word. For me, that is one of the worst conditions that a human being can have, one of the worst conditions that a politician can have,” said the head of the Venezuelan Parliament in a special interview with Telesur.
“We had committed to keeping confidential the letter that Edmundo González delivers to the president of the National Assembly, marking a milestone from the header because he is not recognizing either the Assembly of (Juan) Guaidó, nor Mrs. Dinorah Figuera, but rather he recognizes the National Assembly of Venezuela that the people voted for in 2020, and the five branches of the State,” he stressed.
He added that Edmundo González, upon going to the Spanish embassy, cut off communication with María Corina Machado and established connections with the Bolivarian Government. “You, Mr. González Urrutia, were the one who sought us out to discuss your decision to leave the country,” he said.
Edmundo González wanted to deliver the letter himself
Jorge Rodríguez revealed that the extremist opposition requested that the letter of recognition of the country’s institutions be delivered into his own hands.
“Some people close to him contacted me and suggested the possibility of an exchange due to his intention to request political asylum in the Kingdom of Spain,” he explained.
“At first it was a phone call, then he and I had telephone conversations, as well as his interlocutors and ours. On September 6, we met at the embassy of the Kingdom of Spain; there we had a conversation, which I must describe as polite, in which we both expressed our points of view with respect and where he (González Urrutia) again stated that his intention is to leave Venezuela,” he added.
He specified that González Urrutia agreed to draft a letter and deliver it to him because it was addressed to his investiture as head of the Legislative Branch.
“Then 24 hours pass and we hold a new meeting at the residence of the Spanish embassy, which are the photographs that I showed,”
“Everything we are showing today has its proof,” he stressed. He also considered that the extremist opposition “got the Spanish ambassador in Caracas into trouble.”
She reiterated that the Executive Vice President held talks with the Spanish authorities to process the corresponding permits and grant asylum and air travel from Venezuela to the European nation.
There was no blackmail
Jorge Rodríguez insisted that there was no pressure, coercion or blackmail during the conversations he held with Edmundo González Urrutia, and that proof of this is that the negotiations took place at the headquarters of the Spanish Embassy.
“The ambassador was there, he was an exceptional witness,” he added.
He also said that the opposition member had expressed his firm intention to leave the country, “he said it on several occasions, his firm intention was to travel to Spain.”
“They have tried by all means to distort the content of the letter issued by Edmundo González. Because it clearly states that he abides by the decision of the Electoral Chamber of the TSJ, that is, he recognizes the electoral victory of Nicolás Maduro,” he said.
