Venezuelan opposition leader and former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said on Sunday that the capture of former President Nicolas Maduro was "an important step, but not enough," and demanded "as president of Venezuela" that the army "enforce the elections that his political movement won in 2024."
"The real normalization of the country will only come when all the Venezuelans who have been detained for political reasons are freed," Gonzalez said in a video from Spain, where he was exiled after the last elections of 2024.
Gonzalez participated in those elections, but was never able to become the Venezuelan president because Maduro also claimed that he had actually won the elections, even if international observers and human rights organizations called out the results as illegitimate.
"Who took over power is not present anymore, and now faces justice in the US," Gonzalez added and demanded: "As the president of Venezuela, I call on the security establishment to enforce the mandate that the people elected on July 28, 2024."
Gonzalez insisted that the transition must be done "peacefully and with clarity," while he also insisted that "Venezuela needs unity to rebuild, and heal, to recover, and to guarantee that power is never again used against the will of the people."
Gonzalez's comments appear to come as a response to US President Donald Trump's opinion on Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, whom Trump said "doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Venezuelan interim president calls to collaborate with US Gov't
Delcy Rodriguez, the vice-president during Maduro's government and the current interim president of Venezuela, issued a statement on Sunday calling to "collaborate with the United States to guarantee a peaceful future for the people of Venezuela."
"We prioritise moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela, and between Venezuela and other countries in the region, premised on sovereign equality and non-interference," she wrote in a statement.
"We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence," the statement added.
Rodriguez also addressed US President Trump directly, insisting that both the Venezuelan and the American people "deserve peace and dialogue, not war."
In a previous statement released shortly after Maduro's capture, Rodriguez claimed the operation was performed alongside Israel.
"The governments of the world are shocked that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the victim and target of an attack of this nature, which undoubtedly has Zionist undertones,” Rodriguez said in a Saturday address in which she convened a National Defense Council. “It’s truly shameful.”
How was the US operation to capture Maduro?
On Saturday, United States special forces launched an unprecedented operation in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, combining cyberwarfare, airstrikes, and a targeted ground raid that culminated in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
US President Donald Trump called it a “spectacular assault like people have not seen since World War II."
The mission included months of preparation, CIA agents inside Venezuela collecting information, a pressure operation targeting Venezuelan assets in the Caribbean, and finally, Operation Absolute Resolve, where Maduro was captured.
Corinne Baum and Joanine Margulies contributed to this report.