The opposition Edmundo González talks about returning to Venezuela in January to take office as president

He former opposition candidate Edmundo González He mentioned on Monday his intention to return from exile to Venezuela to take office as president-elect on January 10, 2025, maintaining his position that he won the presidential elections and in defiance of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In an interview with the Colombian radio station W RadioWhen asked if he will be physically in Venezuela on the day the new president takes office, Edmundo responded that “that is the idea.”

“The strategies are not revealed publicly, I am willing to assume the mandate that the Venezuelan sovereign gave me at the polls,” González stated without giving details about how he intends to overcome the arrest warrant against him after the questioned July elections. , which both the opposition and the ruling party claim to have won.

Venezuelan authorities, including Attorney General Tarek William Saab, have warned that he would be arrested if he returns to the country. González traveled to Spain, where he asked asylum, at the beginning of September before the criminal investigation that was opened against him for the dissemination of electoral records that showed his victory.

The opposition has expressed that its candidate, the 75-year-old former diplomat, won resoundingly.

Maduro, who aspired to be re-elected for a third six-year term, was declared the winner by the National Electoral Council (CNE), a collegiate body with a pro-government majority, without the voting records having been published so far after almost three months. the elections.

The opposition claimed to have in its possession at least 84% of the polling station records which, as it defended, give González a 2 to 1 victory over Maduro. “Let’s put it this way: on July 28, the people issued a sovereign mandate that I am committed to fulfilling, I was the president with the most votes in the history of Venezuela and that victory has been proven.”

González did not give any clues as to how he will achieve a transition in power in Venezuela or if there are active conversations to achieve it in the short term.

“For those who still occupy State institutions, the costs of leaving are still greater than those of remaining, our plan is to continue working… to generate the necessary pressure,” González said.

His statements come a week after The United States will speak of the former opposition candidate as the “president-elect” of Venezuela, a mention that they had not publicly issued with those words, despite having previously recognized him as the legitimate winner of the elections.

International observers questioned the independence and impartiality of the electoral authority and the Supreme Court after the July elections. The latter, close to the ruling party, endorsed the result of the votes after receiving the order from Maduro to carry out a formal expert opinion.

The Venezuelan president has defied requests from the United States, the European Union and even leftist allies such as Brazil and Colombia to publish the voting records.

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