In the weeks after the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro by the United States military, global attention turned to who would be best positioned to govern a country that spent 13 years under authoritarian rule.
Since Maduro’s unceremonious ouster by US special forces on January 3, the right to succeed him has been claimed by: , Maduro’s former deputy, currently sworn in as interim president with apparent support from US President Donald Trump; Trump himself, who previously claimed to be “in charge” of Venezuela; and the Venezuelan opposition, with leader María Corina Machado saying last month that her coalition should lead the country. Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for weathering a tumultuous election that put her at the top of Maduro’s most wanted list.
However, one key voice has been missing from the spotlight: Edmundo González Urrutia – the man who replaced Machado in the 2024 presidential election after she was barred from participating and who, according to the opposition and several Western nations, including the United States, .
Since that disputed election, Machado’s international profile has soared – thanks not only to his daring escape from Venezuela when he traveled to Norway to receive his Nobel Prize, but also to his subsequent donation of the prize to Trump when he met him at the White House in January. She is the one who has engaged directly with American officials as the opposition tries to secure its position in post-Maduro Venezuela.
González, meanwhile, has remained largely out of public view. So what happened to him?
A man of few words
Living in exile in Spain since the end of 2024, González has remained mostly silent since the American operation that ousted Maduro.
He released a statement the day after the attack — when Machado was still silent — saying the moment was “an important step, but not enough” and calling for the release of political prisoners.
Since then, he has not spoken out much about the , focusing instead on the release of these prisoners – an issue close to his heart, as his son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison by Venezuelan authorities during the Maduro regime.
After the release of Tudares along with dozens of other political prisoners, on orders from Rodríguez in what the Venezuelan government called a gesture of “peace”, González made one of his few public comments about the 2024 election in an interview with Fox Noticias, in which he said: “More than 7 million Venezuelans voted for our candidacy, and it is from this reality that the process of democratic normalization in Venezuela must begin.”
Furthermore, since the election, he has been a man of few words – as, indeed, he always has been.
A retired diplomat who served as Venezuela’s ambassador to Algeria and Argentina, he is much more comfortable negotiating behind the scenes.
In fact, he was not the first, second or even third choice of the opposition coalition known as the Democratic Unitary Platform. After the Maduro regime vetoed Machado, both academic Corina Yoris and former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales were considered as possible replacements.
González became the opposition’s last resort to present a candidacy within the election deadline.
“The fact that he kept this low profile was actually a very positive thing for the opposition. And that’s why he was chosen, because he wasn’t polarizing and he was much less likely to be blocked,” said Rebecca Bill Chavez, president and CEO of the Inter-American Dialogue. “It was a quality that helped the opposition. But it is also one of the reasons why he is less visible today.”
Those close to González’s circle know that he never really wanted the presidency – as he himself has acknowledged on many occasions
“I never imagined I would find myself in this situation,” he told Venezuelan media in late April 2024, shortly after his candidacy was formalized.
It was shortly after this comment that a photo by Bloomberg photographer Gaby Oraa went viral, showing him feeding colorful wild macaws known in Venezuela as guacamayas. And so, the opposition’s last hope quickly became the image of a beloved grandfather to voters.
Experts say there is a political strategy behind González’s discreet stance. “Political movements, in general, tend to project a clear political voice. And right now, it’s Machado,” Chavez said.
“The fact that she won the Nobel Prize is a big part of that. At the same time, I think it’s important to recognize that he is central to the democratic legitimacy of the opposition. He is the one who holds the electoral mandate.”
This thinking is presumably why Machado frequently uses “we” in his statements, though that’s not enough to stop some voters from wondering why they hear so little from the man they consider the real president-elect.
And it’s not just that González is so silent, it’s that even the main actors sometimes act as if he doesn’t exist. Take Trump as an example. The US president has been very vocal about Rodríguez and Machado – from claiming that the Nobel laureate was not “respected” enough in Venezuela to take power, to saying later in January that he was considering involving the Venezuelan opposition “in some way” in the country’s leadership.
But Trump has been notably silent on González and remains uncertain what the next steps in Venezuela’s transition will be. In an interview with NBC News released on February 12, Delcy Rodríguez said Venezuela will have “fair and free” elections, but did not provide a timetable.
A divided opposition
Despite González’s apparent preference to stay out of the spotlight, the choice comes at a price.
“A for about two decades in two groups”
“The essential difference has not been ideological; it has been about strategy,” he told CNN Phil Gunson, a Venezuela analyst for the International Crisis Group, who has lived in Caracas for more than two decades and knows González personally.
Hardliners like Machado believe in more aggressive political action – such as mass mobilization and protests – and have less faith in elections, while moderates like González tend to take advantage of any political openings that exist, including elections.
“Politically, Edmundo is moderate. He does not belong to the same part of the opposition as (Machado),” said Gunson. After González went into exile and Machado went into hiding following the 2024 vote, this relationship became more complicated.
“She’s the one making all the decisions. She’s the one calling the shots. She’s the one issuing the statements. And often, she’s issuing statements on his behalf or on their behalf, and he finds out later that those statements have been released,” Gunson said. “She’s quite autocratic in her political style.”
According to Gunson, who used to be González’s neighbor, Machado likes to have all decisions made by her and her inner circle. “And (González) is just not part of the inner circle,” he told CNN.
In Washington, where Machado is well known on both sides of the political spectrum, the official information center for Venezuela carries the names of Machado and González. “They claim to be representing him, but they’re not. They don’t consult him,” Gunson said.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in Madrid, González is surrounded by many Venezuelan exiles who want more aggressive political action. “Your position is not comfortable,” Gunson said. “He’s geographically isolated from decision-making. He’s much more a prisoner of the kinds of things (Machado) says.”
For Gunson, this dynamic is unlikely to change
As someone who never really wanted the presidency in the first place, González finds himself quietly playing his assigned role: that of a figurehead who gives the opposition a sense of legitimacy.
“We should see this as a sacrifice that he made because he felt it was his duty to do so,” Gunson said.
“But even now, he probably doesn’t dream of becoming president.”
