Foreign Affairs

He plans to be sworn in as Venezuela’s president, and he hopes both Biden and Trump will help him

Edmundo González Urrutia is trying to bolster international support before Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro is sworn in Friday.

Edmundo González Urrutia, who represented Venezuela’s main opposition coalition and claims to have defeated Nicolás Maduro in the country’s presidential election last July, speaks with POLITICO. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO

By Nahal Toosi

01/07/2025 10:00 AM EST

Updated: 01/07/2025 01:18 PM EST

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In the eyes of President Joe Biden and much of the world, Edmundo González Urrutia is the rightful next president of Venezuela. Yet he’s in Washington this week seeking America’s help making that a reality.

Venezuela holds its inauguration on Friday, and strongman ruler Nicolás Maduro is planning to be sworn in. González says he, too, intends to be there to take the oath of office — if he can reach Venezuela’s shores, avoid the $100,000 bounty on his head, and convince Maduro to step aside. The odds are against González, but he’s doing his best to convince Biden, aides to President-elect Donald Trump and other American leaders to support his cause.

In an interview with POLITICO on Monday, the 75-year-old González was upbeat about his prospects. He stressed that he wants a peaceful transfer of power in Venezuela, and is not requesting outside military intervention, but he also pointed to some not-quite-analogous examples of transitions that at times felt impossible.

“Look at what happened with Assad,” he said, meaning the recently ousted Syrian dictator. “Look at what happened with the Libyan government. They fell down one day and disappeared.”

González shared his thoughts after meetings with Biden and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), whom Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. González — whom Maduro forced into exile last September — stopped in Washington as part of an international tour to rally global support ahead of the inauguration.

González said his message to Biden was one of gratitude and a request for more support for the Venezuelan people. He wouldn’t go into specifics about what that meant, but the possibilities include more sanctions and more legal targeting of Maduro and his aides on criminal matters.

“They know what they have to do. We don’t have to give lessons to the U.S. administration,” González said. “They have done a lot. It’s not sufficient.”

And what did Biden pledge to him? “We will do whatever we can.”

Venezuelan opposition leader González steps out of the West Wing to speak to with reporters after meeting with President Joe Biden. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration in November recognized the opposition’s victory, and the White House readout of Biden’s meeting with González referred to him as Venezuela’s president-elect. According to the readout, Biden “underscored the U.S. commitment to continue to hold Maduro and his representatives accountable for their anti-democratic and repressive actions.”

Still, even with U.S. backing,........

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