Venezuela Opposition Figure Was 'coerced' To Recognise Maduro Win

Madrid, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Sep, 2024) Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia on Wednesday said that he was coerced into signing a document recognising President Nicolas Maduro as the winner of the country's contested election as a condition for letting him flee to Spain.

"I had to either sign it or deal with the consequences," Gonzalez Urrutia said in a message on X, citing "very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure".

He said Maduro allies brought him the document when he was in the Spanish embassy in Caracas before fleeing to Spain to request asylum, following the July 28 presidential election that the opposition insists he won.

"At that point I considered I could be of more use free than if I were imprisoned and prevented from fulfilling the tasks entrusted to me" by voters, he said.

Maduro's government earlier said that Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, had signed a letter stating that he complied with a contested court ruling that endorsed Maduro as the election winner, handing him a third six-year term.

The text it attributed to him, dated September 7 and shared by Maduro's communications ministry on the messaging platform Telegram, said he had also agreed to keep a low profile in exile.

"A document produced under coercion is tainted with absolute worthlessness," Gonzalez Urrutia said.

He told supporters: "They will not silence me. I will never betray you."

Gonzalez Urrutia fled to Madrid on September 8 requesting asylum following weeks in hiding after Maduro ordered his arrest.

The United States has recognised Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner of the election.

Spain and other European Union nations have refused to accept Maduro as the victor and called on the Venezuelan government to release the voting tally sheets.

Venezuelan prosecutors have opened an investigation against Gonzalez Urrutia for alleged crimes related to his insistence that he was the rightful election victor.

The charges stem from the opposition publishing its own tally of polling-station-level ballots cast, which it says showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning about two-thirds of votes.