Venezuela’s Gonzalez Says He Was Forced to Sign Letter Accepting Maduro Victory

Venezuela's presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez (R) meets Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (L) at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain on Sept. 12, 2024. Fernando Calvo/Moncloa Palace/Reuters

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González has said he was forced to sign a letter accepting that he had lost July’s presidential election to the socialist incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, before he was allowed to leave the country and go into exile in Spain.

González, 75, said in a statement on Sept. 18, “Either I signed or I faced the consequences.”

He said he signed the letter—in which he accepted a ruling from Venezuela’s supreme court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, that recognized Maduro’s victory—under duress, in the Spanish embassy in Caracas.

In a video published on social media platforms Instagram and X on Sept. 18, González said, “They showed up with a document that I would have to sign to allow my departure from the country.”

‘Tense Hours Of Coercion’

“In other words, either I signed or I would face consequences. There were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure,” he added.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 presidential election, despite evidence suggesting that he had lost in a landslide to González, who has now gone into exile in Spain.

The opposition obtained voting tallies that suggested that González had won 73 percent of the accessible votes, twice as many as Maduro had received.

The United States and numerous other countries have said they do not recognize Maduro as president after what they regard as an undemocratic and opaque election, and last month, one of the five members of the National Electoral Council broke with the others and criticized the “grave lack of transparency and veracity” in the process.

After signing the letter, González was allowed to leave on Sept. 8 on a flight to Madrid, where he was granted political asylum.

A warrant for his arrest was then issued in Venezuela, based on an investigation into the publishing of the voting tallies, which had been leaked.

The document González signed was supposed to be confidential, but Jorge Rodríguez, head of Venezuela’s National Assembly and Maduro’s chief negotiator, presented it during a nationally televised news conference this week.

Excerpts of the letter, which was from González to Rodriguez, had earlier been published by a Venezuelan news outlet.

Rodríguez said at the news conference that González signed the letter voluntarily, but he denied that in a video posted on social media and said he was coerced into putting his signature on it.

After the Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled that Maduro had won the election, Rodriguez said González had “24 hours to deny that.”

In the letter, González said, “I abide by it because it is a resolution of the highest court of the republic.”

Gonzalez: ‘I Am Elected President’

But in his video message this week, González called himself the “elected president of millions and millions of Venezuelans” and promised to “fulfill” his mandate.

Maduro, who is backed by a loyal army and police, is set to be inaugurated for his next six-year presidential term on Jan. 10.

Earlier this week a U.N. fact-finding mission reported that the Venezuelan regime had intensified its use of the “harshest and most violent” tools of repression.

It said Venezuela’s security forces, who are loyal to Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, have carried out arbitrary detentions, torture, and sexual violence.

The report accused Maduro’s government of carrying out at least 39 “arbitrary detentions,” consisting of 32 men and seven women who were “real or perceived opponents of the government,” following the July 28 election.

“In most of the cases investigated, the detentions involved or were followed by serious and systematic violations of due process,” the report added.

González only became the Unitary Platform coalition candidate after Venezuela’s supreme court refused to allow Maria Corina Machado to be a candidate.

The Supreme Tribunal of Justice upheld the ban, which was based on alleged fraud and tax violations, and accused Machado of seeking the economic sanctions the U.S. imposed on Venezuela.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.