MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Venezuelan opposition politician Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who fled the country after a tumultuous election and subsequent police crackdown, said Saturday (Sunday in Manila) he has plans to speak with US President Joe Biden.
Appearing in Argentina, where he met with President Javier Milei, Gonzalez Urrutia added that he was traveling to the United States on Sunday, though it was unclear when the conversation with Biden would take place.
“We are planning a conversation with President Biden and we are waiting for details regarding the new authorities,” Gonzalez Urrutia said in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, referring to incoming US president Donald Trump, set to take over on Jan. 20.
Gonzalez Urrutia’s meeting with Milei came at the start of a regional tour aimed at building international support for the man Venezuela’s opposition considers the rightful president-elect.
The 75-year-old appeared alongside Milei on a balcony of the Casa Rosada, the Argentine president’s official workplace, as hundreds of Venezuelans gathered below on the Plaza de Mayo chanted “Venezuela, you are not alone!”
“Argentina will not be complicit in silence in the face of the injustices and abuses of the Maduro regime,” Milei said in a statement Saturday.
The appearance came just days before Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — whose government led a crackdown on the opposition following the election — is set to be sworn in for a third presidential term in Caracas.
The United States, the European Union and dozens of other countries say Venezuelan election officials manipulated the results of the July 28 elections, which they have yet to publish in detail.
Some countries have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the clear winner, with Maduro recognized by a handful of others, including Russia.
