Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez flees Venezuela for Spain
- Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez abandons Spanish ambassador’s residence
- A Spanish government source said his arrival in Spain, where his wife now lives, was ‘imminent’
Key Venezuelan opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez has left the Spanish diplomatic compound in Caracas where he had been staying for more than a year and fled the country.
“Today ... Leopoldo Lopez leaves the Spanish embassy in Venezuela for international territory to promote new actions in the fight for the freedom of Venezuela,” Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), the party founded and led by Lopez, said in a statement on Saturday.
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Lopez tweeted a message to the Venezuelan public late Saturday.
“Venezuelans, this decision has not been easy, but rest assured that you have this servant to fight [for you] from any space. We will not rest and we will continue working day and night to achieve the freedom that all us Venezuelans deserve,” Lopez wrote.
The 49-year-old added that details of “the actions we propose to carry out” to achieve that goal would be shared “in the next few days”.
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The Spanish Foreign Ministry confirmed in a tweet that the opposition figure left the Spanish ambassador’s residence, where he had been staying since April 2019, of his own will.
Several media outlets cited Lopez’ father Leopoldo Lopez Gil, who represents the conservative Spanish people’s party in the European Parliament, saying his son had secretly crossed the border from Venezuela to Colombia on Friday and was on the way to Spain.
A Spanish government source said his arrival in Spain, where his wife now lives, was “imminent”.
Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori, who joined him at the residence, managed to leave for Spain in May 2019, along with their daughter.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who dozens of countries have recognised as Venezuela’s interim president, claimed on Twitter that Lopez escaped the country by “outwitting” President Nicolas Maduro’s “repressive aparatus”.
“Maduro, you control nothing,” Guaido tweeted.
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Lopez was jailed in 2014 after calling for protests against Maduro and was released into house arrest in 2017.
He was freed from house arrest on Guaido’s orders in 2019, but fled to the Spanish diplomatic compound following a failed opposition uprising.
The Venezuelan government of Maduro has not yet reacted publicly to the latest exile of a high-profile opponent.
But the United States welcomed the news.
“We are happy to see Leopoldo Lopez free. The illegitimate regime has hundreds of prisoners because they do not agree with Maduro, they represent a threat because the people are with them, or they have the audacity to ask for the rights of the Constitution,” tweeted the virtual US embassy for Venezuela, located in Colombia.
In power since 2013, Maduro continues to enjoy the support of the army, the cornerstone of the Venezuelan political system, as well as Russia, Iran and Cuba.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters
