Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González said his departure from Venezuela is temporary and called on Brussels to take decisive action to recognise the election results in his country, while the crisis with Caracas has raised the tone of political tension in Spain.
González, who arrived in Madrid on the 8th to request political asylum after denouncing electoral fraud in his country, welcomed the decision of the European Parliament to recognise him as the legitimate and democratically elected president of Venezuela, in a non-binding text that also recognises María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela.
“As president-elect, I thank the European Parliament for this recognition that transcends me; it is the recognition of the sovereign will of the people of Venezuela and the thunderous voice of a majority that demands that the truth be respected,” González said in a message posted on the social network X.
Given the “clarity of the results,” he added, “I consider that the time has come to ask Europe once again and more forcefully than ever for all that it could do through its collegial action at the international level to contribute to the goal of making popular sovereignty, as expressed at the polls, prevail in Venezuela.”
The resolution was approved with the votes of the European People’s Party (right), the ultra-conservatives and the far right, breaking the so-called “cordon sanitaire” of progressive forces against the far right.
Difficulty
Despite its victory, the right, which has had its opponents in the social democrats, liberals, greens and the left, has not managed to get Parliament to approve urging Brussels and the member states to recognise González as president-elect.
Meanwhile, in Spain, the crisis with Venezuela raised tensions today between the socialist government and the conservative opposition, who exchanged harsh accusations about the role of Pedro Sánchez’s government in the departure of González Urrutia from Caracas.
The new confrontation arose after the opposition leader revealed that before leaving his country he met with representatives of the Venezuelan government at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas and was “coerced” into signing a document in which he recognized Maduro’s electoral victory.
The PP has accused the Spanish government of being “complicit” in the “coup d’état that has taken place in Venezuela”, in the words of its deputy institutional secretary, Esteban González Pons.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has even asked for the resignation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and for explanations from the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
A request from the PP
The Popular Party leader said that the Spanish ambassador to Venezuela “must be replaced, the Foreign Minister must resign and the President of the Spanish Government must give immediate explanations.”
Albares categorically rejected these accusations, insisting that “Spain has absolutely nothing to do with any type of negotiation, with any type of document that there may have been between Edmundo González and the Government of Venezuela.”
“The Spanish ambassador had precise instructions not to interfere with Edmundo González’s freedom to speak, negotiate, or meet with whomever he considered appropriate,” so that the decision he made “would be the one he really wanted, and that is why I spoke to him personally,” said the Spanish foreign minister.
Tensions between Madrid and Caracas have escalated in recent weeks after the Spanish Congress and Senate urged the government to recognize Edmundo González as Venezuela’s president-elect.
In response, the Venezuelan Parliament will urge Nicolás Maduro on Thursday to “evaluate” the breaking of diplomatic and commercial relations with Spain.
Madrid / EFE
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2024-09-23 12:14:11
