The Minister of Foreign AffairsEuropean Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, expressed his respect for Venezuela’s “sovereign decision” to summon the Spanish ambassador to Caracas and to summon its diplomatic representative to Madrid for consultations, while refraining from calling the country governed by Nicolas Maduro a “dictatorship.”
“Summoning an ambassador, I have done it on several occasions, and calling for consultations are sovereign decisions of each State and therefore there is nothing to comment on,” the minister said in an interview with RNE, reported by Europa Press, where he recalled that he is working to “have the best possible relations with the brother people of Venezuela”, which the Spanish people feel “extremely close”.
Similarly, he avoided describing Venezuela as a “dictatorship” and explained that being neither a “professor of constitutional law” nor a “political scientist”, but rather a Minister of Foreign Affairs, he is “the last person” who should use “any type of qualifier”, including “a brother country”. Venezuelan.
Albares’ statements come after Venezuela called for a Spanish Ambassador in CaracasRamón Santos, and summoned his diplomatic representative in Spain, Gladys Gutiérrez, for consultations, in response to some “insolent, intrusive and crude” statements by the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who, during an event on Thursday, referred to the government of Nicolas Maduro as a “dictatorship” with the exile of millions of Venezuelans in mind.
THE diplomatic tensions The talks between Spain and Venezuela take place hours after opposition candidate Edmundo González, who is in Spain after leaving Venezuela at his own request to seek asylum, was received Thursday morning by the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, at the Moncloa Palace.
In addition, on Wednesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly proposed a resolution to urge Maduro to break off “all diplomatic relations” and trade with Spain, after the Congress of Deputies, at the request of the PP, demanded that the government recognize Edmundo González as president-elect.
