The Venezuelan political leader Edmundo González broke the silence this Sunday after . In a video message published on his networks, González demanded the freedom of all political prisoners. “Venezuelans, recent events have marked a turning point in the history of Venezuela. This moment constitutes an important step, but not enough. The real normalization of the country will only be possible when all citizens deprived of liberty for political reasons are released and when the majority will expressed by the Venezuelan people on July 28 is respected,” he said, referring to the 2024 presidential elections.
At that time, international observers denounced fraud in the official results that declared Maduro the winner. Numerous countries, including the United States, accepted as valid the opposition minutes that showed a clear victory for González, then candidate.
. Its president, Alfredo Romero, joined this Sunday in the calls for their release as a gesture “to unify the Venezuelan population.”
Our commitment is: loyalty to the people, to freedom and to the rule of law.
We will never betray our principles, that will be the basis of the reconstruction of the nation.
Venezuela deserves a future with rights and hope.
— Edmundo González (@EdmundoGU)
González, who has lived in exile in Spain since Maduro refused to leave power after the elections, highlighted that Venezuela needs unity and also “justice, truth and reconciliation, without impunity” to be able to launch a democratic transition in the Caribbean country after 26 years of Chavista governments.
The opposition leader knows that he needs the support of the armed forces and security forces of Venezuela to govern and they for now remain loyal to Maduro and demand his release. For this reason, he asked them to stop responding to Chavismo. “Your duty is to fulfill and enforce the sovereign mandate. As commander in chief, I remind you that your loyalty is to the Constitution, to the people and to the Republic,” he told them.
The lack of internal support for González and the also opposition member María Corina Machado is one of the arguments that the US Administration has used this weekend to rule out their being the ones to assume the country’s transition at this time. On the contrary, as long as it accepts the course set by Washington. “If you don’t do the right thing,” the US president said in a telephone interview with The Atlantic“will pay a very high price, probably higher than Maduro”, imprisoned while awaiting trial in New York.
González concluded his statement with an optimistic message about the historical moment that Venezuela is going through: “The country that is coming must be a country of rights, institutions and hope. We will build that country together.”
