The Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo López,
left the capital Caracas for a "clandestine route" to Colombia, from where he will travel to Spain
, according to his father of the same name to the EFE agency.
López's location in Colombia was not released for security reasons.
His father added that it is "sure" that he will be in Spain in the next few days, "very soon in any case", and added that it is something that is "in negotiation with the Government of Spain."
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.
[Twenty years in prison: two former US military men accused of participating in an armed incursion against Maduro were convicted in Venezuela]
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.
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 don't control anything
. By circumventing 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.
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