MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

González Urrutia treated by Venezuelan physician in Spain

“I was also moved to think that the talent of my fellow countryman was in exile like millions, like me,” González Urrutia reckoned

Retired Venezuelan diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, whom many consider to be president-elect after the July 28 polls in which Caracas' National Electoral Committee (CNE) said without producing any corroborating evidence that the incumbent Nicolás Maduro had been the winner for the 2025-2031 period, suffered a fall this past weekend while he was in exile in Spain, for which he was treated by a countryman physician also fleeing the Bolivarian regime.

“Who falls down...gets up!” González Urrutia said after the incident that forced him to seek medical help at a hospital. “You will be treated by one of the best doctors, they told me at the entrance,” González Urrutia explained on X.

“The young doctor arrived, he was a fellow Venezuelan! Not only was I proud of the recognition of his colleagues, but I was also moved to think that the talent of my fellow countryman was in exile like millions, like me,” he added.

“My commitment is that Venezuelan talent returns and supports us in the reconstruction of Venezuela,” he went on.

González Urrutia, who fled to Spain last month to avoid an arrest warrant against him by the Bolivarian prosecutors, asked Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to keep the “pressure” on Maduro until the latter leaves power.

”I would tell him (Lula) to keep up the pressure until Maduro feels he can't take it anymore until he changes his position,“ González Urrutia said in an interview published Sunday by O Globo. Regarding the efforts of Brazil and Colombia to find a negotiated solution to Venezuela's political crisis, González Urrutia insisted that these processes ”do not have a start and end date.“.

”The mediation may have ups and downs and we hope it can reach a positive point; the central focus is to convince Maduro that he must respect the popular will,“ he insisted while rejecting any suggestion that the elections could be repeated. ”The votes and the electoral records are there“ for anyone who wants to see them, he stressed.

He also explained that he chose to leave Venezuela because he is ”more useful outside the country than inside.“ He also said he held daily telephone conversations with fellow opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who had been disenfranchised and was thus unable to enter the race herself, which is why she supported González Urrutia's candidacy.

González Urrutia, 75, called on the international community to impose personal sanctions on Maduro, but not on Venezuela's oil sector. He also urged the international community to impose personal sanctions on Maduro but not on Venezuela's oil sector. In addition, he hoped he would be inaugurated on Jan. 10. but declined to mention whether he would be traveling to his country should Maduro stay in power.

”I will return to Venezuela as soon as possible when we restore democracy in our country... And January 10 is the date constitutionally scheduled for the inauguration and I hope that the popular will of eight million Venezuelans will be fulfilled on that day,” he has repeatedly said.