Venezuelan dissident escapes house arrest and flees to Madrid

“We need to rescue democracy in Venezuela as soon as possible, we cannot let Venezuela slip away from us,” Ledezma said when he arrived at Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport today (Saturday).

“I haven't fled my country. Political prisoners and prisoners of conscience release themselves.”

Ledezma, who has been under house arrest since 2015 for being a dissenter of Nicolás Maduro's government, said his country is 'on the point of permanent collapse'.

Maduro, upon hearing Ledezma had left for Spain, called him a 'vampire' and said Spain was 'welcome to him'.

But he has warned that for the dissident to meet with president Rajoy would be an 'unfriendly act' on Spain's part towards Venezuela.

Concerning talks due to be held on December 1 and 2 in the Dominican Republic between Venezuela's government and opposition, in which former socialist president of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is expected to act is arbiter, Ledezma said that if Zapatero had 'let his voice be heard' so that the Venezuelans could have 'carried out a referendum revoking' the new autocratic régime voted on earlier this year, the country 'would have saved between 100 and 200 deaths'.

The protests during and leading up to Venezuela's controversial referendum, which served to channel more absolute power towards Maduro's government, led to dozens, if not hundreds, of civilians being killed, although the exact number is not official.

Ledezma also asked why Zapatero was due to mediate in the Dominican Republic meeting rather than his socialist predecessor, ex-president of Spain Felipe González.

González and Zapatero have both played 'referee' roles and acted as advisor in an attempt to calm the political tension in Venezuela.

Rajoy, according to Ledezma, is 'the first reigning Spanish president' to openly express his support of Venezuela's opposition, even knowing this could strain relations between Spain and its former Latin American colony.

Dozens of reporters were, predictably, waiting for Ledezma when he landed in Barajas after a 10-hour flight and, after embracing his wife Mitzy Capriles and two daughters for some time, the first words he said in the presence of the media were: “In Spain, I feel free.”

“I'm leaving behind a country subjected by the violence of power, and leaving with a heavy heart – I never thought I'd have to emigrate,” Ledezma announced to reporters.

“When I left my house after more than 1,000 days as prisoner inside it, I could not hold back my tears when I saw little girls and women rummaging through bins searching for food – in a country that has the largest oil reserves on earth and a government which has frittered away an immense amount of money and stolen over US$600 billion from the people.”

Venezuelan immigrants who have made Spain their home gathered in huge crowds to greet Ledezma, waving their national flag, many crying, singing the national anthem and shouting messages of support to the ex-mayor of their home capital city.

Ledezma had to escape overland to Colombia after breaking out of his house arrest in order to get a flight to Spain, he explained.