Jorge Rodriguez, the president of Venezuela’s Nationwide Meeting, said on Wednesday that Edmundo González Urrutia signed a doc by which the opposition chief acknowledged the choice of the Supreme Court docket to ratify President Nicolás Maduro’s victory within the July 28 elections.
In a video posted to González’s Instagram on Wednesday, he acknowledged that the alleged doc signed by him is “completely null and void” as it’s a results of “coercion” and “blackmail” by Rodríguez and his sister, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, to permit his departure from the nation to Spain.
“Both I signed, or confronted the implications,” González stated from Spain, the place he has been since September 7.
González is the opposition’s presidential candidate extensively recognized because the winner of the July election, as revealed by precinct degree voting tabulations printed by the opposition’s marketing campaign workforce and reviewed by a number of media organizations and watchdogs.
In August, the Maduro-allied Supreme Court docket ratified the Nationwide Electoral Council’s (CNE) end result which gave Maduro 52% of the vote however supplied no detailed breakdown of the precinct-level voter tabulations.
Within the days for the reason that election, opposition figures, together with González, went into hiding, and lots of had been kidnapped or arrested. On September 7, González fled to Spain after a warrant for his arrest was issued by the general public prosecutor’s workplace. His departure took the nation unexpectedly and the main points surrounding it had been extensively secretive.
On Wednesday, Rodriguez stated that he had telephone and in-person conversations with González on the Spanish Ambassador’s residence in Caracas, the place the 75-year-old stayed whereas in search of asylum.
Rodriguez additionally confirmed a photograph of González and the Rodriguez siblings signing the doc recognizing the Court docket’s ruling. The picture may point out that the assembly passed off on diplomatic grounds.
Nonetheless, González stated, “There have been very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and strain,” the place he thought-about he could be extra helpful free than locked up.
Rodríguez urged González to disclaim his statements about having signed the doc underneath misery. He gave González a 24-hour interval to rectify his stance or he “goes to launch the audio [of their conversation].”
The Maduro authorities claimed that the doc is a forceful assertion that González acknowledged his “defeat,” as Rodriguez stated. But, as indicated in Venezuela’s Civil Code, a doc signed underneath coercion is null and void.
Spanish International Minister José Manuel Albares has denied any involvement within the negotiations between Maduro’s authorities and González.