Sakharov laureate González promises return to Venezuela

Venezuela opposition dissident Edmundo González Urrutia walked unsteadily down the corridors of the European Parliament on Tuesday after receiving the Sakharov prize, but remained firm of purpose on returning to Venezuela after 10 January, saying you don’t go to war “with fear”.

10 January marks entry into power of the Latin American state’s new President. That’s Nicolás Maduro, according to Venezuelan authorities, but his victory in the presidential election held on the 28th of July was questioned by a United Nations panel of experts, as well as by the US and EU.

“The vast majority of the electorate firmly expressed themselves in favour of me,” González told Euronews on Tuesday of the election on 28 July, after receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola in a ceremony in Strasbourg. His co-laureate María Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela’s Unity Democratic Platform, is still in Venezuela keeping her current location hidden from the authorities, and was represented by her daughter Ana Corina Sosa.

González by contrast left the country in September after a warrant was issued for his arrest and fled to Spain, which granted him political asylum. 

He has consistently denounced the Venezuelan government’s failure to publish the official results of the presidential elections, and brought evidence of the votes in favour of his candidacy to the European Parliament’s press room. 

And he is now ready to return, defying the Venezuela’s government’s attitude, described as “unprecedented” repression by the United Nations, with thousands of people detained in the aftermath of the protests that followed the elections. “I’ll be back to Venezuela by land, air or sea,” González told Euronews, adding: “But I will not reveal to you my strategy.”

In his speech in front of the MEPs, González Urrutia recalled previous Sakharov laureates including South African leader Nelson Mandela, Czech politician Alexander Dubcek, Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny and Cubans Oswaldo Payá and Guillermo Fariñas.

 “All those who have received this award have deserved it. We are very confident that this award will help us to follow the same path with the support from the European Democratic Community,” he told Euronews, when asked who inspired his political struggle. 

A disputed recognition

Beyond granting him the Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as legitimate president of the Venezuela with a resolution approved on 19th September.

But the EU stopped short of recognising him as president, as not all member states were on board. However, González claims to have the support of European governments in his fight against Maduro’s regime. “All governments have their own ways of showing support. Some do so explicitly. Others do it in other ways. But as a whole, most European governments are supporting the cause of the democratic recovery of Venezuela, which I represent,” he said

If not all governments support the Venezuelan opposition in equal measure, he tells Euronews, “many of them are accompanying our message, our speech, our rhetoric, our campaign to recover democracy in Venezuela”.

González also met EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, who expressed her support. But any further concrete steps of support from the EU require unanimity, which is not easy to reach, as witnessed last August when EU foreign ministers denied Maduro democratic legitimacy, but avoided imposing more sanctions on Venezuelan officials.