Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González said in a post on X that he was pressured to sign a document recognizing President Nicolás Maduro’s election victory.
González is currently in Spain and said in the message on Wednesday that his signature was a condition from Maduro’s government for him to travel to Spain.
His statement came after Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez presented the signed document on Wednesday, in which González reportedly “recognized the decisions taken by the judicial bodies within the framework of the Constitution.”
González claimed he accepted these terms under duress at the Spanish embassy in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
“There were very tense hours full of coercion, blackmail and pressure,” he said.
Venezuela’s opposition says its candidate González has won a disputed July presidential election, installing authoritarian Maduro for a new six-year term.
The US and several Latin American countries recognize González as the winner of the election, but the European Union also questions the official result.
González traveled to Spain on September 8 and requested political asylum. Earlier, an arrest warrant had been issued for him in Venezuela on charges including sabotage, conspiracy and seizure of power.
He said at the time that he thought he would be more useful as a free man to fulfill “the duties entrusted to him.”
“A document signed under duress is absolutely null and void due to a serious error in consent,” he said.
After the July 28 election, the loyalist electoral authority declared Maduro, who has been in power for 11 years, the winner, but the detailed results were not published.
