He trusts that Maduro “at some point” will abide by “popular sovereignty” and is open to dialogue with Chavismo
The main opposition candidate in the last presidential elections in Venezuela, Edmundo González, sees himself returning to Caracas to take office as future head of state and, although he avoids entering into “hypotheses” about when or how this return can be forged, he does make it clear that at no time is he considering being invested in his current exile.
“Absolutely not,” he says in an interview with Europa Press in which he stresses that he does not give up on returning to the country from which he left at the beginning of September to request asylum in Spain. The day marked in red on the calendar is next January 10, the date on which theoretically the mandate of President Nicolás Maduro expires and the winner of the elections on July 28 must take office.
Chavismo declared Maduro the winner, ignoring the requests of the internal opposition and most of the international community to present the minutes that prove this supposed triumph. “I was the winner with more than seven million votes and we hope that the popular will is respected,” claims González, who believes that his advantage over Maduro would have been “much higher” if all the expatriated Venezuelans had been able to participate.
González, who took the reins of the candidacy after the disqualification of the winner of the primaries, María Corina Machado, and her theoretical initial substitute, Corina Yoris, continues to advocate from Spain for “recovering democracy and institutionality” in Venezuela, which in his opinion means that it is not Maduro who puts on the presidential sash on January 10.
He wants to be the one to assume the “constitutional mandate” and does not hide his desire to return, although he avoids evaluating possible offers of collaboration from third countries to return and does not clarify how he can do so –“we do not know by what means I will arrive,” he says ironically–. “I would not like to consider hypothetical scenarios in advance,” he says, when speaking for example of shadow governments or of replicating some ideas from the Juan Guaidó era.
Guaidó was recognized by more than fifty countries at the beginning of 2019, asserting his position as president of the National Assembly, then dominated by the opposition. The “big difference” now, in the words of González, is that with Guaidó an article of the Constitution was being applied and what is now on the table is “the expression of popular sovereignty” through the ballot boxes.
In any case, he chooses to consider “positively” the challenges that are to come in the coming weeks, when the debate around the potential recognition of González as president-elect will foreseeably reopen on the international scene.
In recent weeks, countries such as Italy and the United States have already taken this step, the latter country having once led the global recognition of Guaidó. González clarifies that he has not had any direct contact with the future US president, Donald Trump, although there have been conversations between their respective teams.
DIALOGUE WITH MADURO
The diplomat suggests that not everything revolves around sanctions, but he does ask governments in other parts of the world to continue “insisting” and taking the side of the Venezuelan opposition. He believes that the Maduro government “will at some point accept” this “popular sovereignty”, for which he does not close the door to dialogue.
In fact, when specifically questioned about a hypothetical dialogue with Maduro, the opposition leader states: “We are willing to negotiate a peaceful transition for Venezuela.” And on the possibility of offering guarantees to Maduro and other Chavista leaders, he limits himself to promising “a peaceful transition.”
THE ROLE OF MARIA CORINA MACHADO
González, a diplomat who was removed from the political front line until this year, took over the administrative reins of a campaign previously and now led by Machado. The head of Vente Venezuela is still in the South American country and, for her partner, she is “the leader of this process”, with whom she continues to maintain a “very cordial” relationship despite the distance.
From Venezuela, where her whereabouts remain unknown as legal and police pressure on her grows, Machado “has called on the opposition to remain united and to continue to put pressure on so that the change of government takes place on the established date,” González stresses in the interview with Europa Press, in which he also claims that, “of course,” his partner understood his departure to Spain.
Machado mainly uses social media to promote demonstrations such as those called for this Sunday by the opposition in different parts of the world — also in Spain — and to demand more pressure from the international community on Chavismo. In Madrid, the meeting will be in front of the headquarters of the European institutions.
Regarding these demonstrations, Edmundo González points out that demonstrations are frequent “in democratic societies,” where “there is absolutely nothing strange about it.” “It is not anti-democratic behavior, on the contrary,” he adds.
