MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

González Urrutia says he is close to returning to Venezuela

“And to the military and police forces, I order the cessation of repression,” González Urrutia said as if he had officially assumed the presidency

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, for many the legitimate winner of the July 28, 2024, elections even after Nicolás Maduro's inauguration for a new six-year term, said he was “close” to return to the country and called on the Armed Forces to “disregard illegal orders” from the Bolivarian de facto regime.

The retired diplomat, who has been in exile since September, insisted Maduro was “violating the constitution.”

“Today in Caracas, Maduro has violated the Constitution and the sovereign will of Venezuelans expressed on July 28, he consummates a coup d'état; he crowns himself dictator. He is not accompanied by the people, he is not accompanied by any government that respects itself as democratic, only by the dictators of Cuba, Congo, and Nicaragua,” Gonzalez Urrutia stressed.

“I continue working on the conditions for my entry into Venezuela and to assume, as the Constitution mandates and the people have ordered me, the Presidency of the Republic and the command in chief of the National Armed Forces,” he went on.

“I am very close to Venezuela, I am ready for safe entry and at the appropriate moment, I will assert the votes that represent the recovery of our democracy, we are coordinating all the indispensable factors to guarantee the prompt return to freedom,” he added.

“As Commander in Chief, I order the military high command to disregard illegal orders given to them by those who confiscate power and prepare my security conditions to assume the position of President of the Republic entrusted to me by popular sovereignty,” he insisted.

“And to the military and police forces, I order the cessation of repression. To the national institutions, I say: for the peace of the Republic, you must disavow the illegitimate regime that has tried to seize power again. In your hands is the institutionality of the Nation that embraces yourselves and your families,” he also underlined.

Maduro was sworn in for a six-year term Friday despite the fraud allegations regarding the elections. González Urrutia's Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) published the minutes for each polling station giving him an overwhelming victory while Maduro's alleged triumph was based on announcements from the National Electoral Council (CNE) later upheld by the Supreme Courts. The Chavistas are known to control both entities.