Venezuela's former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said on Friday he sought diplomatic refuge after being told President Nicolas Maduro's security forces were coming for him. Gonzalez, whom the opposition insist was the real winner of a July election awarded to Maduro,

Edmundo González said the government made him sign a document recognizing President Nicolás Maduro as the election winner before he could flee to Spain.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is trying to reassure supporters that her opposition coalition still has a chance of gaining control of the presidency despite the departure into exile of their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.