Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Thursday that the European Union (EU) must see what “tools” it has to respond to the crisis in Venezuela given the evidence that the electoral records will not be presented, but he ruled out talking about sanctions and said that it is necessary to continue betting on dialogue.
“We continue to support dialogue and negotiation between Venezuelans so that the democratic will is respected,” Albares said upon arriving at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers.
“We have to see,” he added, “what tools we have available to advance this desire.”
At the meeting, the presidential candidate of Venezuela’s main opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, will address via videoconference the foreign ministers of the European Union, who today will discuss the crisis in that country, among other issues.
Petition
Albares explained that, at Spain’s request, the EU will be asked through a joint declaration “not to recognise any electoral result or, of course, any type of victory (…) if the minutes of all the polling stations are not displayed and can be verified.”
But at the same time, he said, Spain plans to “state that more than enough time has passed” and that “we will be faced with the situation that we will probably not be able to see and the opposition will not be able to analyse these minutes.”
Albares also recalled reports from observers such as the Carter Center and the United Nations Panel of Experts “which raise very serious doubts about what happened at the time of the electoral recount” and “a series of circumstances” that mean that the necessary democratic guarantees cannot be considered to have existed.
He also referred to contacts with Brazil, a country with which there is “full agreement to join forces, Europe and Latin America, to achieve this dialogue and negotiation,” he said.
What Spain will seek, Albares explained, is “a common position” between the EU and the Latin American countries “that have the same interest” in seeing “the democratic will triumph.”
The search
The aim of today’s meeting is “an analysis” in which questions are raised such as “what we can do and what we should do” with the “ultimate objective” of “dialogue between Venezuelans” and for a “negotiated, peaceful, genuinely Venezuelan solution,” he added.
Asked about the possibility of sanctions, the minister said that “there is no need to lose patience at all” and stressed that the Venezuelan opposition also continues to support dialogue and negotiation.
Regarding possible new elections in the country, the Spanish minister said that “as an intellectual hypothesis we could consider it, if that were what the government and the opposition agreed on” but added that he had confirmed “that both the government and the opposition rule it out.”
He insisted that the most important thing is to achieve “dialogue” and negotiation, “so that the Government and the opposition can sit together.”
Albares acknowledged that “not all countries in the European Union are aware of the situation in Venezuela, nor do they have that historical, cultural, human, and all kinds of relationship” with the country, which makes Spain more familiar with the situation.
Regarding the possibility of recognising Armando González as was done with Guaidó, he said that it is necessary to see “how all colleagues position themselves” but acknowledged that “at this time it is not the common position of the European Union”.
Madrid / EFE
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2024-08-30 11:14:07
