INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez flew into Spain on Sunday to seek asylum, Madrid said, hours after quitting
of the 75-year-old - seen by the U.S., the EU and other powers in the region as the winner of the disputed vote - came a week after
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a post on messaging platform X
the July 28 election resulted in a resounding victory for Gonzalez, and published vote tallies online that they say show he won.Maduro has
jolting shift in the fortunes of the former diplomat who came out of retirement and took over the candidacy in March, initially as a
placeholder after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and then another replacement could not stand.Machado confirmed on X that Gonzalez
and even the attempts at blackmail and coercion to which he has been subjected show that the regime has no scruples or limits in its
continue to do so within Venezuela, Machado said, and vowed that he would be sworn in on Jan
refuge in the Dutch and then the Spanish embassy in Venezuela after the election, Dutch and Venezuelan officials said.Dutch Foreign Minister
Caspar Veldkamp said in a letter to his parliament on Sunday that Gonzalez had urgently requested refuge in the Dutch embassy the day after
Zapatero, linked to diplomatic relations in the South American country in the past, were involved in a week of negotiations with Venezuelan
authorities for Gonzalez to leave the country, a source with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, speaking on condition of
some harsh recent international criticism of him.Machado, though, remains subject of an investigation and has largely been sequestered at an
Spanish embassy and agreed to give him safe passage to leave the country.In a recording obtained by Reuters after Gonzalez arrived in Spain,
victory to be recognized, but so far those tactics have borne no fruit amid waning attendance at anti-government rallies.Source:
