The countries of the European Union have not gone that far. Not even the big Latin American countries. Not even the United States, which on September 11, 1973, played a large part in the overthrow of Salvador Allende and the establishment of a cruel dictatorship in Chile led by Augusto Pinochet. Only Argentina, with the ultra Javier Milei; Ecuador, with Daniel Noboa, the president who indirectly decided on the unprecedented assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito; and Panama, with the conservative José Ramón Mulino, have taken the decision to recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the elected president of Venezuela, which is precisely what the Congress of Deputies requested this Wednesday with the votes of the PP, Vox, PNV, UPN and CC – 177 votes in favor, 164 against and 1 abstention. This is a request in line with what is being demanded by the Venezuelan opposition, currently led in the country by Corina Machado – a right-wing leader who received the support of Milei in the elections and participated in the events of the European ultraconservatives with Vox.
“The Congress of Deputies urges the government to recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate winner of the presidential elections of July 28, 2024 in Venezuela and, therefore, as the elected and legitimate president of Venezuela,” reads the first point of the non-proposal of law presented by the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
A point that is not supported by the statements of European countries, such as the Spanish government, nor by the main Latin American states – not even the Chile of the very hardline Gabril Boric, where the Cortes voted –, but not the United States either. The States, a historical example of interventionism – civil or military – outside its borders.
Different tones and accents
For example, there are countries that recognize the triumph of Nicolas Maduro – China, Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Russia… –; There are countries that do not recognize the victory of Nicolas Maduro and demand that the electoral results be published before taking this step – the European Union, including Spain, Brazil, Colombia… – and then there are countries, like the United States, which proclaims Edmundo González the winner but does not finish taking the step of recognizing him as president-elect.
According to the Venezuelan electoral calendar, after the vote on July 28, a transition period begins until the proclamation of the new president on January 10, 2025. And this transition period serves for different more or less discreet diplomatic movements to try to resolve a political crisis that led the Venezuelan opposition leader to leave his country and request political asylum in Spain, where he arrived last Sunday.
It is precisely the fact that González is in Madrid that is one of the key elements that some important countries, such as the United States, are taking into account to avoid being recognized as president-elect.
But it is not only the circumstances of the departure from the country and the Venezuelan political map, it is also the memory that arouses resistance in the United States and the EU, the memory of the moment when Europe and the United States, with Spain at the head, decided to recognize in 2019 as interim president the self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó, then president of the Venezuelan Assembly.
This diplomatic operation ended with the EU and the United States breaking off relations with Venezuela, with more sanctions, with Guaidó in Miami and with the realpolitik that Nicolás Maduro remained in Miraflores Palace for another four years.
Today, four years later, González Urrutia is no longer even in Venezuela – since the day after the elections he entered the diplomatic offices in the Netherlands – and the memory of the failure to recognize Guaidó weighs heavily in the main capitals of the world.
It remains to be seen, in any case, whether these positions will be maintained by January 10, and whether the political and diplomatic maneuvers aimed at preventing Maduro’s proclamation on January 10 will bear fruit. And from that moment on, it remains to be seen what countries like Spain, which did not recognize Maduro as the winner of the elections, will do: will they recognize Maduro as president-elect? Gómez Urrutia? No one?
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in El País on Sunday: “On 29 July, I was the first European minister to declare that the minutes of all polling stations must be posted. Without this, a supposed victory could not be recognised. At the last Foreign Affairs Council [de la UE] I said that we had to face the fact that we would probably never be able to see those minutes and that, therefore, we were not going to recognize this victory. [de Maduro]. The common policy [de la UE] At this moment, Edmundo González is not making any recognition either, because many countries are talking about what happened around Juan Guaidó. [reconocido como presidente encargado en 2019]the energy that was then used [sin efectos prácticos]What we need to achieve is a dialogue between the government and the opposition.
And what practical consequences will the non-recognition of Maduro have as of January 10? “We will wait,” Albares replied to El País: “There is this calendar in which we all have to work. The only way out is a peaceful solution between Venezuelans, a truly Venezuelan formula.”
In this sense, as Josep Borrell himself, head of European diplomacy, has often said, the force of reality obliges us to have relations with whoever occupies the government of each country if we want to have relations with that country.
Madrid-Brussels right wing clamps against the government
The European Parliament will debate the situation in Venezuela in the first plenary session after its constitution following the European elections. Four groups (EPP, socialists, liberals – at the request of the PNV – and the extreme right of the ECR) have requested that this topic be included on the agenda. On Tuesday there will be a debate in which High Representative Josep Borrell will participate, and on Thursday a resolution will be voted on, reports Irene Castro.
Venezuela had taken a back seat in the debates in the European Parliament, where it was a recurring topic at the request of the right, mainly until the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Normally PP, the liberals of Renew and ECR – the group in which Vox was in the previous legislature – worked hand in hand on this issue, without reaching a consensus on the position with the progressive forces, such as the social democrats – who are part of the parliamentary majority both popular and liberal.
On this occasion, the right is expected to furtively recognize Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela, as happened in Congress, even though the EU does not currently recognize the victory of any candidate – although it points out the opponent based on the published minutes – and insists that these be published in their entirety. The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee also intends to invite José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has become a key player in the negotiations.
