AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Venezuela's opposition leader is widely recognized to be the winner of July's presidential election. Now he's fled the country. Edmundo Gonzalez left for Spain days after Venezuela's authoritarian regime ordered his arrest. Reporter John Otis is covering the story and joins us now. Good morning.
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: John, can you start by telling us a bit more about Edmundo Gonzalez?
OTIS: Yeah, sure. For starters, Gonzalez was really an accidental candidate. He's a 75-year-old retired diplomat. Hardly anyone in Venezuela had really ever heard of him before. But he agreed to be the substitute candidate for Maria Corina Machado. She's Venezuela's charismatic opposition leader, who was banned from running in the July 28 election. Now, most analysts say Gonzalez won. In fact, the opposition published voter tally sheets showing Gonzalez leading President Nicolas Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin. Meanwhile, observers from the U.N. and the Carter Center say that Maduro has failed to show any evidence for his claim that he won the election.
Now, had Gonzalez managed to take the oath of office, it would have ended a quarter-century of one-party socialist rule in Venezuela. But, you know, Maduro - even though he's deeply unpopular, he has the backing of the military. And since the election, his regime has gone on a crackdown, arresting more than 2,000 people, including protesters and journalists. Last week, it issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, and he ended up seeking refuge inside the Spanish embassy in Caracas.
RASCOE: So then how did Gonzalez manage to escape?
OTIS: Well, the Maduro regime came out with a statement last night saying they would allow him to leave the country. So Gonzalez boarded a Spanish military aircraft and flew to Spain, where the government there has agreed to grant him political asylum. In doing so, Gonzalez joins an ever-larger group of exiled Venezuelan opposition leaders who have made Spain a second home. But the move, in the end, is quite a blow to the opposition. They were hoping that international pressure would eventually force Maduro to stand down and recognize Gonzalez's victory.
Brazil and Colombia, which - countries which are led by left-wing presidents, have been trying to reason with Maduro. They even floated a proposal to try to get him to hold a do-over election. But Maduro's regime is under investigation for crimes against humanity, and Maduro himself faces drug trafficking charges in the U.S., which has put a $15 million bounty on his head. So as a result, Maduro could go to prison if he were to ever give up power. And so instead of doing that, he's doubling down and now seems to be turning into basically a full-fledged dictator.
RASCOE: Any indication of what's going to happen to the opposition?
OTIS: Well, the departure of Gonzalez is going to leave them weaker. Once politicians leave Venezuela, it often means that they're gone for good, and it could become a bit like Cuba's exile community, which is largely based in Miami but has little real influence on the island. That said, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hasn't gone anywhere. Some are actually calling her Venezuela's iron lady. She's been in hiding, but she continues to make surprise appearances at opposition rallies. The U.S. will likely impose more sanctions on Venezuelan officials, but as long as the military continues to support Maduro, it's really going to be hard to dislodge him from power.
RASCOE: That's John Otis, who's been reporting on Venezuela for us. John, thank you.
OTIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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