Venezuela: González ‘forced’ to accept Maduro election win

Following Gonzalez’s statement, Maduro ally Rodríguez presented the letter, which he said was signed by González of his own volition.

At a press conference in Caracas on Wednesday, he also gave González “24 hours” to take back his assertions, saying that otherwise he would publish audio of their conversations debunking the opposition candidate’s claims.

“If you signed under pressure how is it that one of your daughters still lives in Venezuela peacefully, with her family, as regular Venezuelans?

“Venezuelans can think in one way or another and all of them have a place in the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Here there’s no place for violence or fascism,” Rodríguez said.

He also showed photos of an alleged meeting between himself, Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez and González at the Spanish embassy in Caracas on the eve of the opposition candidate’s departure earlier this month.

Prior to his departure for Spain, a Venezuelan judge had issued an arrest warrant for González, accusing him of conspiracy and of forging documents, among other “serious crimes” – all things Gonzalez denied.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) claims Maduro, 61, won 52% of the vote in the 28 July elections. It gave González 43%.

The opposition, however, said it had evidence González had won by a comfortable margin, and uploaded detailed voting tallies to the internet which suggest González beat Maduro convincingly.

The US, the EU and the majority of foreign governments have refused to accept Mr Maduro as the winner without Caracas releasing detailed voting data to prove the result.

The CNE has said it cannot publish the voting records because the data has been corrupted by hackers.