Venezuelan opposition leader González lands in Guatemala days after Maduro sworn in for 3rd term

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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González landed in Guatemala Tuesday, four days after the inauguration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to a third term.

Guatemala Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Ramiro Martínez told The Associated Press that González arrived in Guatemala and Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo planned to meet with him on Wednesday.

González, who is recognized by several countries as the winner of the presidential election, had promised to return to Venezuela to take office. But last Friday, when Maduro was sworn in, he called it off saying the necessary security conditions weren’t there to allow his return.

An airport official in the Dominican Republic, who requested anonymity to discuss González’s departure, said he left a small airport outside Santo Domingo on Tuesday aboard a private plane.

González had been in the Dominican Republic for six days.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, stacked with government loyalists, had declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election. But unlike in previous contests, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts to back the announced result.

The opposition, however, collected tally sheets from 85% of electronic voting machines and posted them online — showing its candidate, González, had won by a more than a two-to-one margin. U.N. experts and the U.S.-based Carter Center, both invited by Maduro’s government to observe the election, said the tally sheets published by the opposition are legitimate.

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Adames reported from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america