• Dissidence Juan Guaidó escapes from Venezuela to Colombia

Since Nicolás Maduro came to power in 2013 and after the marches that Leopoldo López – then leader of the Popular Will party – led and that led him to the darkness of Ramo Verde, Venezuela has seen its people leave in abundance. Juan Guaidó is the latest in a long line of exiles. Among the expelled 'children' are recognizable faces of the opposition, many of whom have landed in Spain starring in film escapes.

The team of 'El Nacional'

Venezuelan journalist Miguel Henrique Otero, president of the newspaper El Nacional, persecuted by Chavismo, has been exiled in Spain for years. Judicial charges weigh on him and the harassment of his head has continued far from his homeland. Like Leopoldo López Gil, who arrived at the end of 2014 in our country, forced to escape for being a member of the editorial board of the aforementioned opposition media. Both have been and are spokespersons for Venezuelans abroad. López Gil is currently a PP MEP.

Antonio Ledezma

The former metropolitan mayor of Caracas escaped in November 2017 from his homeland. Months earlier, in August of that same year, the Sebin (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) entered his house, without any order and took him out in his pajamas with his family as a witness. "Today, when I arrive in Spain I feel free," he said upon landing at Barajas airport. Then, he narrated a film escape: more than 24 hours and 29 checkpoints until he managed to reach Colombia after managing to escape the arrest to which he was subjected. And how did he get it? With the help of "the military dissatisfied with the government," he responded on Spanish soil.

Leopoldo Lopez

Moving was the image of Leopoldo López's reunion with his family, published by Voluntad Popular, in October 2020. The media were waiting for him with expectation at the Madrid airport after hearing the news to capture his arrival in a country where he could finally feel free. But it was impossible to capture that snapshot, because the most representative opponent of Chavismo decided on a discreet landing. The former political prisoner spent three and a half years in Ramo Verde prison and under house arrest for almost two years. Together with Juan Guiadó he starred in an attempt at military rebellion, which failed. On April 30 of that year he took refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas and from there, after a secret trip, he arrived in Madrid in October.

Lester Toledo, Franco Casella, Lorent Saleh and Guaidó himself

Less known, but who also lived a heart attack escape, were Lester Toledo and Franco Casella. Toledo (then deputy of Voluntad Popular for Zulia) was also persecuted by the Sebin and even spent three days in an air conditioning duct. Then, he boarded a boat for 16 hours, as he told this newspaper in December 2017, and took a plane, from there he managed to reach the US. Deputy Casella spent four months in the Mexican embassy in Caracas and left for Colombia. The case of the young Lorent Saleh is particular, since he arrived in Madrid liberated by Chavismo. "They released me at the moment I was most afraid, because the opponent Fernando Albán [who fell from the tenth floor of the building] was killed days before by the Venezuelan state," Saleh said at a press conference in Madrid in October 2018.

Juan Guaidó himself has already left his country to embark on a European tour, in January 2020. Despite the dangers of leaving, he decided to visit several countries, including Spain, to promote the democratic cause.

The Anonymous of a Mass Exodus

More than seven million Venezuelans have already left Venezuela, making it one of the most serious migration crises in the world. Most go to neighbouring countries on foot due to lack of resources. Colombia, Peru, Chile or Brazil have received hundreds of them in recent years and have even had to implement emergency measures to manage arrivals. Among those who can afford to take a plane, many of them choose Europe in search of a future in freedom and without violence.

  • Juan Guaidó
  • Venezuela

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