The Venezuelan opposition leaders Edmundo González and María Corina Machado receive this Tuesday in Strasbourg González, who, as evidenced by the more than 80% of the records recovered by the opposition, comfortably won the presidential elections of July 28 as a candidate of the Venezuelan opposition, has traveled to the French city from Madrid, where he arrived in exile in September. Machado, threatened by Nicolás Maduro’s regime, remains hidden somewhere in Venezuela. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, will collect the award on her behalf, received by her mother in recent months.
The recognition, the most important from the European Parliament, praises “his brave fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela.” However, the new president of the South American country is beginning to know little about the words. In interviews with EL PAÍS hours before collecting the European award, both González and Machado’s daughter are firm: Europe must do more for Venezuela.
“The effort is there, a step has already been taken. We interpret this award as support for the democratic cause of Venezuela. Obviously, our intention and our desire is for it to be full recognition as the elected president of all Venezuelans,” says González (La Victoria, Venezuela, 75 years old). “Of course they should do more,” she says, more direct than the veteran diplomat, Ana Corina Sosa (Caracas, 33 years old). “That they recognize and call Edmundo González for what he is and what the millions of Venezuelans voted for (…) who is our elected president,” he claims. “And on January 10 they must support us in this transition of power and in the inauguration. That is what we expect from sovereign governments, because Venezuela’s cause has global repercussions,” warns the young woman.
But for now, Europe is still waiting. Very few countries, like Italy after the United States did, have recognized González as president-elect. The official position of the Twenty-Seven after the July elections. Furthermore, the EU is worried and busy with other fires: the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, it is now joining. Venezuela, in this context, seems to have fallen several places on the scale of European concern, both acknowledge with a serious expression.
Off the EU radar
Although time is running out, the situation in the South American country is not on the radar of the last summit of the year of the heads of state and government of the EU, this Thursday in Brussels. Nor has he been present at the meeting of foreign ministers this Monday with the new high representative for EU Foreign Policy, the Estonian Kaja Kallas. González hopes, however, to meet these days in Strasbourg with the new head of European diplomacy. And he shows off his experience as a diplomat: “International conflicts arise, they become accentuated, then they fade away, international relations go through these situations. So we trust that she [Kallas] Then resume the interest we have in the cause of Venezuela,” he explains.
In any case, González maintains his plans to return to Venezuela to take office as president of the country, although he now introduces a small nuance: he says that he will be back in his country “as of January 10.” He still does not reveal more details or plans, although among these, in these last weeks before the big event in Caracas, is the possibility of touring Latin America to gather more support.
“We still do not have an exact definition, but we do have the intention of going to some countries in the region, to bring this same message that we are bringing to all countries. More than seven million Venezuelans voted for my candidacy. And that is something that we aspire to enforce, respect for popular sovereignty,” he points out. To do this, he wants to visit “the Latin American countries that are committed to the Venezuelan cause,” which is the case, he points out, “of the president [Gabriel] And what about countries that have tried to mediate, such as Brazil or Colombia? “Of course yes,” he adds, although again he avoids going into details. The risk that something will go wrong, that the Maduro Government will do everything possible and impossible to prevent its appearance on that key day, is too high. Although everyone assumes it.
“We are aware of the challenge we face and we are assuming it with great responsibility. And we aspire to carry it forward and we aspire to have the support of the vast majority of Venezuelans in this,” says González. At the end of the day, remembers Ana Corina, who also had to leave her country due to pressure from the regime, what is at stake is the future of the country. “We risk our future on January 10,” he says. “So, yes, there is fear, but we also have a lot of hope because that future that so many of us long for is coming, to reunite families in a future of dignity and to begin to rebuild, because we have a long way to go, a lot of work ahead.”
