MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday met Venezuela’s fugitive opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez in Madrid, a day after the lower house of Spain’s parliament voted to recognise Gonzalez as the winner of a presidential election in July.
Gonzalez, 75, who is wanted by Venezuelan authorities on charges of conspiracy and other crimes, took refuge in Spain on Sunday while Sanchez was visiting China.
“I give a warm welcome in our country to Edmundo Gonzalez, whom we receive showing him Spain’s humanitarian commitment and solidarity with Venezuelans,” Sanchez posted on X social media platform.
The post showed a video of the two men and Gonzalez’s daughter taking a walk in the gardens of the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s official residence.
The Venezuelan opposition has published vote tallies from the election in July and said Gonzalez won a resounding victory. But the national election board declared incumbent President Nicolas Maduro the victor. He has shrugged off international criticism as a right-wing plot.
On Wednesday, Spain’s lower house approved a motion urging the government to recognise Gonzalez as president elect, a symbolic move Sanchez said his minority Socialist-led government would ignore and align with the European Union on the issue.
The Venezuelan parliament has asked the government to cut the already shaky diplomatic ties with Spain after the motion was approved.
Sanchez said Spain would keep on demanding the release of detailed vote tallies in the presence of an EU mediator while not yet recognising either Maduro or Gonzalez as winner.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Angus MacSwan)
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