Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez said he was forced to accept Nicolas Maduro as the victor in July's disputed presidential election to get out of the Spanish Embassy in Caracas and escape from the country.

Gonzalez, whom the opposition insist was the real winner of a July election awarded to Maduro, told Reuters during an interview in Madrid he could have been jailed and possibly tortured had he stayed

After the Maduro regime threatened González with arrest for alleged "terrorism," he was granted political asylum in Spain.