Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia on Sunday headed into exile in Spain aboard a military airplane after the South American country's government afforded him safe passage.

Gonzalez Urrutia — who disputed President Nicolas Maduro's July 28 re-election — had been in hiding for a month, ignoring three successive summons to appear before prosecutors and arguing that attending the hearing could have cost him his freedom.

"After taking refuge voluntarily at the Spanish Embassy in Caracas a few days ago, (Gonzalez Urrutia) asked the Spanish government for political asylum," Venezuela's vice president Delcy Rodriguez said on social media, adding that Caracas had agreed to his safe passage.