BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, a former political prisoner and prominent leader in the movement to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime, has fled Venezuela, top officials in the opposition said Saturday.
The mentor to U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó and a conduit to U.S. officials seeking to remove Mr. Maduro from power had been holed up in the Spanish ambassador’s residence in Caracas since fleeing house arrest during a failed military uprising in April 2019.
“Venezuelans, this decision has not been a simple one,” Mr. López said in a Twitter post late Saturday, promising to continue working against the Maduro regime from afar. “Be assured that this servant can put up the fight from any place.”
Described as athletic and audacious by those who know him, Mr. López, who is 49 years old, left the rambling ambassador’s residence, in a quiet, affluent neighborhood in the eastern end of the city, and made his way to Aruba, said one person close to Mr. López and familiar with his departure.
The person said Mr. López had traveled to Miami in a journey that began in Aruba. “It’s an operation that’s been in place for months,” he said about how Mr. López abandoned the residence. The person said Mr. López’s final destination would be Spain, a center of opposition activity, where his family—including his wife, three children and his father, a member of the European parliament—resides.
Guards outside the Spanish ambassador’s residence in Caracas on Saturday, where Leopoldo López had been holed up.
Photo:
Matias Delacroix/Associated Press
Questions, however, remained about his departure, and three figures in the opposition movement who live abroad said the departure came after a negotiation between Spain’s socialist government and the Maduro regime.
A person close to the Maduro government said Mr. López was allowed to escape to facilitate ongoing dialogue with the European Union, which has tried to broker negotiations between Venezuela’s political divisions.
The ambassador’s residence is tightly guarded, with the agents from Mr. Maduro’s secret police, the Sebin, regularly questioning visitors on their way out of the mansion.
Mr. López left the embassy days after the Spanish ambassador with whom he was close, Jesús Silva, was recalled after more than three years in Caracas. People close to Mr. López said he was concerned he would no longer be welcome in the residence. Venezuelan intelligence agents detained two employees of the ambassador’s residence after Mr. López abandoned the house, a person with knowledge of what happened said.
In Washington, the Trump administration took notice of the departure of Mr. López, who has had...
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