Albares: Venezuela confirms the identity and charges against the two detained Spaniards

Albares assured that Spain will do everything possible to achieve the liberation of the Spaniards / Photo: EFE

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has announced that the Government of Venezuela has already confirmed the identity and charges against the two Spanish citizens detained, according to Caracas, for alleged espionage within the framework of a plot to destabilize Nicolás Maduro. .

In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, the head of Spanish diplomacy detailed that at the end of last week he had official confirmation of the arrest and charges of the two Spanish citizens, as he had previously demanded from his Venezuelan counterpart. , Yván Gil.

From this moment, as Albares himself has announced, “diplomatic and consular protection” of José María Basoa Valdovinos and Andrés Martínez Adasme is being exercised “so that these two compatriots unjustly detained in Venezuela can return to where they always had to be, which is with their families.”

Asked what charges they are facing, the Foreign Minister has avoided answering, arguing that his Ministry must “work calmly” and that the detainees “also have the right to privacy.”

And he has reiterated that Spanish citizens “have nothing to do” with “any Spanish public body, much less with the CNI” (National Intelligence Center).

Meeting in New York

Last Friday, Albares met in New York with the Venezuelan vice chancellor, Ránder Peña, and demanded that Spain be able to provide consular access to the two Spaniards detained in Venezuela, as well as that the specific charges against them be communicated.

“Let no one have any doubt that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I personally, will not spare any effort until these two compatriots unjustly detained in Venezuela are where they always had to be, free and with their families.” Albares added before insisting that his situation is “unacceptable.”

Caracas announced the arrest of the two Spaniards in the midst of an escalation of tension with Madrid, after the arrival in Spain of the former Venezuelan opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, who has requested political asylum in the European country after denouncing electoral fraud in Venezuela.

Madrid / EFE