Venezuelan opposition leader rallies support in Panama ahead of Maduro inauguration

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.

Accompanied by a dozen former Latin American leaders, González met with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino at the presidential palace, where they were photographed holding what González said are the original ballot tallies that show his landslide victory in the presidential elections of July 28.

"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.”

The meeting comes after González left exile in Madrid to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden 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 to assume office as president on Friday.

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 official ballot tallies, 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, González said his son-in-law was kidnapped.

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 declared Maduro the winner.

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.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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, 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)

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)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)