Definition: In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
Input: (CNN) The former mayor of Caracas -- who is a staunch opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro -- was welcomed Saturday in Madrid after escaping house arrest. "I have the support from the Spanish government to remain in Spain as long as necessary, as well as my family who are accompanying me here, my wife Mitzy, and my daughters, who are here at my side," Antonio Ledezma said. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy received Ledezma, a longtime Venezuelan opposition lawmaker, and his wife, Mitzy Capriles, on Saturday at Moncloa Palace. Ledezma, 62, was elected mayor of Caracas in 2008. He was arrested in February 2015, after Maduro accused him of involvement in a plot to overthrow the government. He was later released from jail and put under house arrest for health reasons.Ledezma had been under arrest since 2015Venezuela is facing food and medicine shortages 
 Question:Earlier in the day, Ledezma spoke to journalists at the Madrid airport, where he said _ was not at the edge of an abyss but had already hit bottom.

Venezuelan