Caracas (AFP) - Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had no choice but to flee Venezuela for exile in Spain to save his own life amid a “brutal wave of repression” after disputed presidential elections, the leader of the opposition Maria Corina Machado said Sunday.

Gonzalez Urrutia, who the opposition says it can prove won July 28 elections in which strongman Nicolas Maduro claimed a widely questioned victory, arrived in Spain Sunday after a month in hiding in the crisis-hit South American country.

The choice for him to leave was made as “his life was in danger,” Machado said on X.

Gonzalez Urrutia had replaced Machado on the ballot at the last minute after she herself was prevented from running by institutions loyal to Maduro.

Venezuela’s regime-loyal CNE electoral authority declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 elections, but the opposition cried foul and much of the international community refused to accept the result without seeing a detailed vote breakdown, which has not been forthcoming.

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, who Maduro has said belongs behind bars along with Machado. She remains in hiding.

Gonzalez Urrutia left Venezuela after ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors, arguing that doing so risked his freedom.

Machado said on X Sunday that “the increasing threats, subpoenas, arrest warrants and even attempts at blackmail and coercion against (Gonzalez Urrutia) show that the regime has no scruples or limits in its obsession to silence him and try to bring him down.”

She added that “faced with this brutal reality, it is necessary for our cause to preserve his freedom, his integrity and his life.”

- ‘A hero’ -

Madrid said it would grant asylum to the retired diplomat.

He arrived on a Spanish military plane at the Torrejon air base near Madrid with his spouse at around 4.00 pm local time (1400 GMT), according to a foreign ministry statement.

Speaking at a socialist party meeting on Saturday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Gonzalez Urrutia as “a hero who Spain will not abandon.”

On Sunday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Gonzalez Urrutia had requested political asylum and that Spain would “obviously” grant it to him.

Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez said on social media that Caracas had agreed to the safe passage of Gonzalez Urrutia, who had taken “refuge voluntarily at the Spanish embassy in Caracas a few days ago.”

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said he would make an “important announcement,” which the public prosecutor’s office said would take place at 1500 GMT on Sunday.

The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, meanwhile, demanded that Venezuelan authorities “end repression, arbitrary arrests and harassment against members of the opposition and civil society, as well as release all political prisoners.”

- Disputed election results -

Gonzalez Urrutia is being investigated for crimes related to his insistence that he was the rightful victor of the July poll.

Charges include usurpation of public functions, forgery of a public document, incitement to disobedience, sabotage, and association with organized crime.

He risks a jail sentence of 30 years.

The charges stem from the opposition decision to publish its own tally of polling station-level ballots cast, which it says showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning about two-thirds of votes.

Venezuela’s electoral authority has said it cannot provide a breakdown of the election results, blaming a cyber attack on its systems.

Observers have said there is no evidence of such hacking.

Post-election violence in Venezuela has claimed 27 lives and left 192 people injured, while the government says it has arrested some 2,400 people.

After Venezuela’s last election, in 2018, Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud. With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.

Maduro has led the oil-rich but cash-poor country since 2013.

His tenure has seen GDP drop 80 percent in a decade, prompting more than seven million of the country’s 30 million citizens to flee.

burs-mlr/st