The opponent Edmundo González Urrutiawho claims victory in the Venezuelan elections, met this Saturday with Argentine President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires, where he was applauded by hundreds of Venezuelans days before the debated inauguration of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.
The 75-year-old diplomat greeted the protesters from the balcony of the Casa Rosada (seat of government), which overlooks the central Plaza de Mayo, along with his wife Mercedes and accompanied by President Milei, his sister and secretary of the Presidency. , Karina Milei, and Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein.
“One of the most exciting moments I have ever experienced! Venezuelans, we will also find ourselves in the streets of our beloved country,” he wrote on the X network when publishing a video showing the ovation of hundreds of people with flags and posters like “Venezuela, you are not alone” and singing “Freedom, freedom!”.
Among street vendors of arepas, the traditional corn bread of his country, Luis Soto, a 27-year-old Venezuelan student who emigrated to Argentina more than six years ago, carried a sign that said “Do what is necessary, president.”
“Because they are going to be difficult days to get out of the tyranny we have,” he told AFP. “They are not going to be easy decisions, but let him do what is necessary, we trust him.”
González Urrutia, a 75-year-old diplomat, arrived in the Argentine capital with great stealth on Friday night from Madrid, where he has been exiled since September, to begin a tour that will also take him to Uruguay this Saturday, Panama on Wednesday and the Dominican Republic on Thursday.
González Urrutia assures that will take office as president of Venezuela on January 10 instead of Maduro.
He has a $100,000 reward offered this week by the Venezuelan scientific police for information leading to his capture.
On Saturday afternoon, González Urrutia will meet in Montevideo with the Uruguayan presidentLuis Lacalle Pou, and the chancellor, Omar Paganini.
Embassy
González’s visit to Argentina takes place in the midst of a resurgence of the tension between Caracas and Buenos Aires due to the arrest in Venezuela of the Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo, accused of “terrorism”, which led to complaints from Argentina before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
But The relationship between Milei and Maduro was already complicatedwith numerous exchanges of insults, and ended up breaking with Argentina’s ignorance of the electoral result in Venezuela.
In addition, the Argentine embassy in Caracas – which was taken over by Brazil after the breakdown of relations – has sheltered six Machado collaborators since March, also accused of “terrorism.” One of them renounced asylum in December and surrendered to the authorities. The other five are waiting for safe passage to leave the country.
In a video on his Instagram recorded hours before his meeting with Milei, González Urrutia detailed that he would address the issue of asylum seekers in the embassy with him. “That is and will be our concern in all the conversations we will have here in Buenos Aires,” he said.
Unitary candidate
Gonzalez Urrutia He was the unitary opposition candidate in the July 28 elections due to the banning of opposition leader María Corina Machado. He sought asylum in Spain after being accused by the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office of “conspiracy” and “criminal association.”
The Venezuelan electoral authorities proclaimed Maduro re-elected for a third consecutive six-year term (2025-2031), without publishing details of the scrutiny so far, while the opposition denounces fraud and claims the victory of González Urrutia based on the publication of the 85% of the electoral records on a website.
“Maduro will never be able to show a single report because we devastated the entire country and they know it,” Machado wrote on the X network this Saturday, showing that according to this count, González obtained 67% of the votes.
The candidate He was ambassador in Buenos Aires in the early 2000s. “22 years later, I return as elected president of my country,” he wrote in X shortly before his visit to the Casa Rosada.
Argentina ignores Maduro’s re-electionas well as the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries.
His proclamation sparked protests that left 28 dead and some 200 injured, in addition to 2,400 detained. Three of those arrested died in prison and nearly 1,400 have been released on parole.
Maduro prepares to be sworn in facing a new period with the support of the Armed Forces, whose high command has declared “absolute loyalty” to him.
