Anti-Maduro campaign ‘stronger than ever’ after Venezuelan election, says Machado

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said exile of key figure Edmundo Gonzalez changes absolutely nothing'

The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has insisted the campaign to end Nicolas Maduro's authoritarian rule is stronger than ever", but the banishing of one of its key figures to Spain has thrown many supporters off balance.

Edmundo Gonzalez, who the US and other countries have recognised as the winner of Venezuela's 28 July presidential election, flew into exile on Sunday after several weeks holed up in the Dutch ambassador's residence in Caracas. An arrest warrant, seemingly designed to force the retired diplomat to flee, had been issued a week earlier.