Edmundo González, Venezuela’s Opposition Leader, Says He Was Forced to Sign Letter Recognizing Maduro

Edmundo González said the government made him sign a document recognizing President Nicolás Maduro as the election winner before he could flee to Spain.

Venezuela’s restriction pioneer, Edmundo González, said in a video address from oust on Wednesday that the country’s despotic government had constrained him to sign a letter recognizing President Nicolás Maduro as the victor of the debated July election.

Mr. González said that he marked the archive fair some time recently escaping to Spain this month and that he was told by high-ranking Venezuelan authorities that his signature was required if he needed to take off the country.

While the letter holds no legitimate weight exterior Venezuela, it is seen as portion of an exertion by the government of Mr. Maduro to paint Mr. González as a powerless pioneer prepared to forsake his nation and standards to spare himself. The government has utilized comparable stories to offended other resistance pioneers, counting Leopoldo López, presently in Spain, and Juan Guaidó, presently in the Joined together States, calling them defeatists for fleeing.

Analysts and restriction activists say the strategy is portion of a bigger design in Venezuela in which the government coerces individuals of the resistance to make articulations that implicate them or weaken their development. In later months, the specialists have kept lesser-known activists who have at that point showed up in video confessions distributed by the government, regularly claiming to have plotted against Mr. Maduro.

On Wednesday morning, a nearby news outlet detailed that, whereas in Venezuela, Mr. González had marked a report recognizing a Incomparable Court administering from final month that certified Mr. Maduro’s triumph in the July 28 election.

Hours afterward, in a video address from Spain, Mr. González said that the letter was “absolutely null” and that he had marked it beneath coercion. He depicted “very strongly hours of constraint, shakedown and pressure” that driven him to sign the document.

He depicted stowing away out in the Spanish political home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, early this month when two key figures in Mr. Maduro’s government, Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez, entered and requested that he sign the report. “Either I marked or I confronted the consequence,” Mr. González said. Mr. Rodríguez is head of the governing body, and Ms. Rodríguez, his sister, is the bad habit president.

Around the same time, Mr. Rodríguez held a news conference in which he displayed the letter marked by Mr. González and said that he would discharge sound of their assembly in Caracas, which he has not done.

Mr. Maduro and Mr. González ran against each other in the presidential vote. The country’s national appointive chamber pronounced Mr. Maduro the victor but did not distribute vote counts, provoking broad affirmations of extortion. Vote counts distributed by the resistance shown that Mr. González had won about 70 percent of the vote.

Early this month, Mr. Maduro’s lawyer common issued a warrant for Mr. González’s capture, charging him of scheme and other violations. Mr. González had been in covering up, to begin with in the Dutch political home in Caracas and at that point in the Spanish conciliatory home there.

In the video address, Mr. González depicted his choice to escape, saying he had come to the conclusion that he would be “more useful” to the nation living openly in oust than in covering up in Venezuela.

This week, the Joined together Countries Human Rights Board issued a report denouncing the government of grave human rights infringement some time recently and after the race, counting illegal detainments and torment in detainment centers. The Worldwide Criminal Court is moreover exploring Mr. Maduro for violations against humanity.

The Joined together States kept up a exchange with the Maduro government final year to get him to hold competitive races and recognize the result.

Last week, a senior U.S. organization official said in an meet that contact between Washington and Caracas had been exceptionally negligible since July 28 and that there were no plans to continue talks.

The Joined together States has recognized Mr. González as the victor. On Thursday, the Parliament of the European Union moreover recognized him as the victor. But the choice holds small weight and does not fundamentally reflect the position of person E.U. countries.

Mr. Maduro’s socialist-inspired development has held control since 1999. In January, he is set to start another six-year term.

Geoff Ramsey, a senior individual for Venezuela at the Atlantic Committee, said that it was clear that the letter marked by Mr. González was implied to dishonor his development and to make it show up as if another exertion to unseat Mr. Maduro had failed.

But Mr. Ramsey did not know if it would work, given that Mr. González’s most critical partner, the previous lawmaker María Corina Machado, remained in Venezuela.

Ms. Machado won an resistance essential final year by a avalanche and has overseen to join together much of the nation around a call for government alter. After the government precluded her from running, Mr. González ventured in as her surrogate.

“Machado remains in the country,” Mr. Ramsey said, “and remains inconceivably popular.”