Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López arrived in Madrid this Sunday and is at his parents' home in the capital of Spain, sources close to his family informed the EFE agency.
López left the capital Caracas on Saturday for a "clandestine route" to Colombia, from where he traveled to Europe
, his father informed EFE.
López's location in Colombia was not released for security reasons.
His father had advanced on Saturday that the arrival of the politician in Spain was in "negotiations with the Government."
The Venezuelan opponent remained as a guest at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas since April 30, 2019, after participating in a failed military uprising.
Hours after his departure,
a private security guard from the Spanish Embassy in Caracas and an employee of the politician were arrested by Sebin officials
.
The vigilante, identified as José Jerjes Neira, had been working in the Spanish Embassy for years, according to diplomatic sources confirmed to EFE.
["Guaidó seems to be losing power": Trump says he will continue to be involved in a change in Venezuela]
The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) of Venezuela began on Saturday night a search of a residential building where diplomatic personnel and Spanish security forces reside, apparently in search of opposition leader Leopoldo López, several witnesses reported. .
The Spanish Government condemned the arrests of the personnel of the Spanish embassy in Caracas
and the searches carried out in the houses of workers attached to it after the departure from that country of the opposition Leopoldo López -arrived today in Madrid-, understanding that they violate the Vienna
"The decision to leave the embassy is a personal and voluntary decision
,
"
according to the Spanish ministry.
López is the leader of the Voluntad Popular (VP) party, in which parliamentarian Juan Guaidó also spent his entire career, until he left the party last January with the aim of representing all opponents and not just one organization.
[Twenty years in prison: two former US military men accused of participating in an armed incursion against Maduro were convicted in Venezuela]
Guaidó, whom many consider his disciple, mocked Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro after learning of López's departure from that country.
On Twitter he wrote:
"Maduro, you do not control anything
. By mocking your repressive apparatus, we managed to get our Commissioner for the Center of Government, Leopoldo López, into international territory."
López was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to 14 years in prison
, accused of leading the violent acts in the anti-government marches that took place that year.
The opponent served his sentence for almost three years in a military jail and, later, was transferred to house arrest until his release in April 2019.
That day he joined the military uprising led by Guaidó, recognized as interim president of Venezuela by about 50 countries, when he went with some thirty soldiers to a military base in Caracas.
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After that, he acknowledged in an interview with EFE that
a military intervention in Venezuela is an option that is still present among the opposition to the Government of Nicolás Maduro
, because it is a legal alternative contemplated by the Constitution.
[A Venezuela in crisis and with a pandemic does not steal hope from this clown]
The last public message was launched by López last Thursday, when he congratulated the opposition in Belarus for winning the Sakharov Prize for freedom of conscience, an award that also received opposition to Maduro in 2017.
With information from EFE and El País.