By Genevieve Glatsky and Orlando Mayorquín
The opposition candidate in Venezuela’s disputed July presidential election left the country Saturday, authorities said, as a standoff deepened at the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas, Venezuela, where six Venezuelan opposition leaders have been sheltering since March.
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has faced widespread domestic and international condemnation for proclaiming that he won the election, as well as for a violent crackdown on demonstrators protesting that declaration. The United States has said that the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, won.
On Saturday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez of Venezuela said on social media that González had left for Spain after voluntarily seeking refuge at the Spanish Embassy in Caracas. Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said that González was traveling on a Spanish air force plane at his own request.
“The government of Spain is committed to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans,” he wrote on the social platform X.
González was a retired diplomat with no political ambitions when he was plucked from obscurity in March to be a stand-in for popular opposition leader María Corina Machado. A few weeks earlier, the Venezuelan Supreme Court had disqualified Machado from the election, a common tactic to keep strong competitors off the ballot. Those who know González said the role was not one that he had aspired to, but that he had accepted it out of a sense of duty.
Last Monday, a Venezuelan court that deals with “crimes associated with terrorism” issued an arrest warrant for González. He was charged with conspiracy, usurping power, and sabotage, among other things.
In a separate standoff, security forces have surrounded the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas since Friday night. The six Venezuelans took refuge there in March, soon after the country’s attorney general announced warrants for their arrests.
Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that Venezuelan intelligence security forces were surrounding the residence. It warned them not to “kidnap” asylum-seekers staying inside.
Brazil has been representing Argentine interests in Venezuela since last month, when Maduro ordered diplomats from Argentina and other countries that disputed his claim of winning the election to leave the country.
In a statement on Saturday, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said that it had been forced to revoke Brazil’s custody of the Argentine diplomatic mission. The Foreign Ministry said that it had proof that its facilities were being used to plan “terrorist activities” and to plot assassinations against Maduro and his government.
A representative for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry told The New York Times that under international law, Venezuela had no right to do such a thing.
In a separate statement, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said it had been surprised to learn that Maduro’s government “intends to revoke its consent for Brazil to protect Argentina’s interests in Venezuela.”
“Brazil will remain in charge of the custody and defense of Argentine interests until the Argentine government indicates another state acceptable to the Venezuelan government to exercise the aforementioned functions,” the statement said.
Some of the Venezuelans sheltering in the Argentine diplomatic residence posted images on X on Saturday morning that appeared to show armed men in uniform nearby, some wearing balaclavas. They also confirmed earlier reports that electricity had been cut off to the residence.
In a message posted to X, the opposition leader, Machado, pleaded for help from the international community.
“Diplomatic asylum, in principle and as an institution with a profound Latin American spirit, has served to protect the politically persecuted,” Machado wrote, adding “Today, it stands to be violated.”
In interviews with the Times this summer, some of the opposition leaders described living in a state of anxiety and uncertainty since seeking refuge there in March.
After the July election, police officers were stationed outside of the residence for three days, sometimes dangling handcuffs, the campaign officials said.
A top aide to Machado, Magalli Meda, said that those three nights “took years off my life.”
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