Better inside or out? Venezuela's opposition candidate flees to Spain

The Debate

After a stint at the Dutch embassy in Caracas, Venezuela’s opposition candidate for president Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has chosen exile in Spain over arrest by his election rival, incumbent Nicolas Maduro. Did the 76-year old former diplomat do the right thing?

How about the leader of the opposition coalition, Maria Corina Machado? The conservative – who was barred from running – insists she is staying put in Venezuela, all the while playing hide-and-seek with authorities who are also threatening her with jail time.

As for the successor of Hugo Chavez, he claims he won in the July 28 first round with 56 percent, but still has not released precinct-by-precinct figures to prove it. In the past, Maduro could count on stalwarts of the Latin American left to back him. Will it be different this time? Already Chile's left-wing president has denounced the result while neighbours Brazil and Colombia – who had offered to mediate this latest crisis – are weighing their options.

More broadly, how does oil-rich Venezuela do it? It seems to lurch from crisis to crisis with no change at the top in a quarter-century. What are the options for the opposition? What are the options for the country's 28 million citizens?

Produced by Andrew Hilliar, Rebecca Gnignati and Maria Rosa Zampaglione.