Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, left, receives from Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia a copy of Venezuela's 2024 election tallies at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, left, holds up a copy of Venezuela's 2024 election tallies, given to him by Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, right, at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
From left, Mexico's former President Vicente Fox, Panama's former President Ernesto Perez Balladares, Panama's former President Mireya Moscoso, current Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, his wife Mercedes Lopez, Costa Rica's former President Laura Chinchilla and a Mexico's former President Felipe Calderon, pose for a photo at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, left, receives from Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia a copy of Venezuela's 2024 election tallies at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
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Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, left, holds up a copy of Venezuela's 2024 election tallies, given to him by Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, right, at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
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From left, Mexico's former President Vicente Fox, Panama's former President Ernesto Perez Balladares, Panama's former President Mireya Moscoso, current Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, his wife Mercedes Lopez, Costa Rica's former President Laura Chinchilla and a Mexico's former President Felipe Calderon, pose for a photo at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Days before Venezuela’s presidential inauguration, self-exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González was in Panama Wednesday rallying regional support for the opposition's claims that he won the July election against President Nicolás Maduro.
"Venezuela is facing very complicated times because the regime insists on clinging to power despite having been widely defeated in the elections,†González said after thanking Mulino for support. “The elections were openly stolen.â€
The meeting comes after González left exile in Madrid to and leaders of Argentina and Uruguay. After the tour around the region, which included a stop in the Dominican Republic on Thursday, González said he plans to go to Venezuela .
He has not explained how he plans to return or wrest power from Maduro, who has put out an order for his arrest and whose party controls all institutions, including the military.
The Venezuelan opposition hailed another victory on Wednesday when Colombian leftist leader Gustavo Petro said he would not attend Maduro's inauguration due to an arrest of a human rights activist in Venezuela. The shift in posture by Petro, who has cozied up to Maduro, represents a key show of support the opposition has been pushing for.
“We can't recognize elections that were not free," Petro wrote on the social media platform X on Wednesday.
Still, the opposition faces almost insurmountable odds after being dealt blow-after-blow by Maduro's crackdowns following the elections, a long way from the roaring popular support they felt ahead of July elections. Maduro's government never released the , documents which the opposition said it gathered through a massive grassroots effort.
After claims that the tallies showed an overwhelming victory for González, the Maduro government arrested hundreds of critics and opposition members. On Tuesday, .
The crackdown and Maduro's claim of victory met with sharp criticism across the region. Panama was one of the first Latin American countries to demand from Venezuelan authorities a full review of the presidential electoral results after the country's electoral authority .
Mulino's government said it would suspend relations with Caracas until that happened, and on Wednesday the Central American leader only sharpened his discourse against Maduro.
“We want to make it clear to you that Panama is with you and with the legitimacy you represent,†Mulino told González.
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Suárez reported from Bogotá, Colombia. AP writer Joshua Goodman contributed from Miami.
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