Edmundo González is “morally prepared” for an eventual arrest in Venezuela

The Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia maintains, in an interview with EFE, that he is “morally prepared” for his eventual arrest if he returns to Caracas to assume the Presidency and is committed to a peaceful transition in which Chavismo can find a space and the own Nicolas Maduro can continue in the country.

Less than 50 days before the scheduled date for the inauguration of the next president of Venezuela, January 10, González Urrutia confirms his intention to travel to Caracas to take office with the support of the 7.3 million votes that, he claims, , he achieved in the elections on July 28, compared to the little more than 3 million that he attributes to Maduro.

(Read also: Edmundo González “asked for clemency” to leave Venezuela, according to Nicolás Maduro)

In the first interview he gives to a Spanish media, González Urrutia, who arrived in Madrid in September to request political asylum after denouncing electoral fraud in his country, considers himself “the candidate who won the victory” and who “should take possession of the Presidency”. “That’s what we are prepared and working for,” he says.

After the elections, the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), has denounced Maduro’s victory as “fraudulent” and defended that González Urrutia is the elected president based on 83.5% of the minutes that they claim to have gathered. through witnesses, documents that the Venezuelan Government calls false.

The former diplomat is confident that if he returns to Caracas to assume the Presidency he will not be arrested, but he assures that is “morally prepared” in case it occurs.

“What I don’t have is a ticket yet, but my plan is to be there. The plans are to return to Caracas on January 10 and take office that day,” he says.

It will not be, he admits, an easy situation: “Well, there will be a pulse, a tension.” “What is advisable for the country” would be the departure of Nicolás Maduro, “for the health of all Venezuelans,” he points out.

In his opinion, the Government’s “harassment actions” against Maria Corina Machado and himself—like the arrest warrants—are signs of Maduro’s “weakness.”

He trusts in massive mobilization, both in Venezuela and in different capitals around the world, in response to the call launched by Machado for next December 1, although he recognizes that in the country there is a “potential” climate of violence and provocation by of the ruling party.

In his eventual administration as president, González Urrutia advocates for “negotiations for an orderly transition”, with the release of political prisoners, which number more than 2,000.

“There will be prior negotiations that will allow, God willing, an orderly transition. There could be coexistence within Venezuelan soil,” he maintains.

“There will be a transition where popular bases they can have a space and that Chavismo can find a space. Chavismo is a political force that will remain in the country,” he continues.

“Theoretically we are the majority, of course, but what we want is to turn the page and open a space for the recovery of Venezuela, recovery in the broadest sense: politically, economically and socially speaking,” he says.

His priority: “The reunion of Venezuelans and that is going to be my fundamental task, the reconciliation of the country, the reconciliation of Venezuelans.”

“The Venezuelan Constitution only allows one president. I am the one who will take office on January 10,” insists González Urrutia, when asked about Maduro’s future.

“He finished his mandate” and “will take his course,” he adds.

Could I be another citizen in Venezuela? “I could be just another citizen, of course,” he says.

In the interview with EFE he also speaks about the role of the Army, an important actor in a transition in Venezuela.

“It could be said that perhaps the leadership may be maintaining the stability of the regime, but the base and midpoints of the Armed Forces are the reflection of Venezuelan society,” with the problems that shake the entire population, such as inflation or the deficiencies in healthcare, he explains. “They are going through those same situations,” he adds.

“It’s a question of the military commands of the generals appointed by Madurobut that is a very small leadership”, with which, he assures, he has had no contacts.

Just 10 days after the inauguration of the next Venezuelan president, Donald Trump will return to the Presidency of the United States, a country that recently recognized González Urrutia as the elected president of Venezuela.

The opposition leader has not spoken personally with Trump although, he explains, both of their teams have maintained contacts in Washington.

He avoids anticipating what impact Trump’s new stage in the White House may have on Venezuela, although he hopes it can contribute “to a peaceful transitionmoderate, that has the future of Venezuelans as its objective.”

González Urrutia appreciates the efforts of his Latin American neighbors to promote the transition in his country and trusts that “I hope they are firmer and I hope they can carry out the provisions of these governments to a successful conclusion.”

Also in the European Union, which recently awarded him the Sakharov Prize along with María Corina Machado, he says he has found support.

In Spain he feels “at home” and avoids entering into issues of national politics, but highlights that in his conversations with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, he has found “positive expressions of affection and support.”

“At no time do I have anything to complain about what has been done so far,” he says.

González Urrutia says he does not fear for his personal safety, nor for that of his family in Caracas: “When I negotiated my departure to Spain There was an agreement on some guarantees.” “One of them is not to intervene with my family, not to mess with my family there,” he concludes.