Yesterday, Spain denied Nicolás Maduro: José María Basoa and Andrés Martínez Adasme, the two Spaniards detained by the Chavista regime, “They are not part of the CNI or any other state organization”. This is how he expressed himself insistently after learning Saturday afternoon, during a press conference by the Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, that two Basque citizens were being held in Caracas for, according to the Maduro government, being members of the CNI and being part of a terrorist plan with the CIA to assassinate Nicolas Maduro, Delcy Rodriguez and his Hair.
“Spain categorically denies and rejects any insinuation that it is involved in an operation of political destabilization in Venezuela,” the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday in a statement. And it added: “The Government has verified that the detainees are not part of the CNI or any other state organization. Spain defends a democratic and peaceful solution to the situation in Venezuela“.
Beyond this statement and another in which they affirmed that the Spanish consulate in Caracas, the General Directorate of Consular Affairs and the Minister’s Office “They remain in permanent contact with the families of the detainees.” The department headed by José Manuel Albares did not provide further information on the situation of Basoa and Martínez in Caracas.
Unresolved unknowns
What the Foreign Office does not specify is when they learned that Basoa and Martínez were arrested. Their families had been looking for them since September 2, the last time they had contact with them. They reported the disappearances to the Ertzaintza on September 9, when the escalation of diplomatic tensions with Venezuela began after the arrival of opposition leader Edmundo González. The Foreign Ministry has also not provided information about them, citing the data protection law. Although it is in contact with the families and has collected information about both, the Albares Ministry does not provide any details about Basoa and Martínez’s motivations for traveling to Venezuela and crossing the border from Venezuela. Port Ayacucho (the point where they were detained) in Colombia and return after a few days. This area is known for smuggling.
The Ministry of Defense, to which the CNI belongs, has not yet commented on the arrest of the two Spaniards. Once it has been clarified that they are not part of the CNIThey understand that this matter depends on Foreign Affairs.
The profiles of both on the professional network Linkedin provide very little information about their professions. Basoa appears as a “senior technician in installation, repair and maintenance of gas, heating, plumbing and air conditioning installations” with experience in Spain and Germany. Martínez simply assures that he is from Bilbao and that he is unemployed.
After Cabello’s press conference last Saturday, ABC reached out to a relative of the detainees, who said that “the situation is under control” and that they did not want to “talk about it.” Later, when they learned of the existence serious accusations that Diosdado Cabello had paid from Venezuela, this same relative acknowledged that everything They were “in shock”From this environment was highlighted the idea that they had gone on vacation, that they were tourists and that they were traveling without a guide.
It so happens that the announcement of the two arrests and Venezuela’s accusations against Basoa and Martínez came two days after Defense Minister Margarita Robles accused Nicolas Maduro’s regime of being a “dictatorship”which led Venezuela to summon the Spanish ambassador in Caracas and to summon for consultations its ambassador in Madrid, who returned to his country the same Friday.
Robles’ words served as a pretext for Venezuela to carry out the threat from earlier this week, when after the Congress of Deputies recognized Edmundo González as Venezuela’s president-elect, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguezasked Maduro to break off diplomatic and commercial relations with Spain.
But he joined the Robles line yesterday Joseph BorrellHigh Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security. “It is a dictatorial and authoritarian regime”he said in statements to Telecinco. He stressed that with “more than 2,000 detainees”, “seven million” emigrants and opposition leaders in exile, few qualifiers are appropriate, but “it is about trying to solve the problem.”
In the absence of more detailed information from the Foreign Office about Basoa and Martínez – what they are doing, what they did in Venezuela, how they paid for the trip and how long they knew about their arrest – everything indicates that Edmundo González’s asylum application in Spain and Margarita Robles’ statements could have led Venezuela to exploit the detention of two Spanish tourists as political prisoners.
From tourists to political prisoners
“It’s a common tactic in the Maduro regime,” a source who knows the Chavistas very well tells ABC, noting that “it’s quite striking” that Maduro hasn’t appeared all week and that Cabello is “the one who This operation was invented to justify Venezuela using a strong hand with Spain.“.
Another source consulted by ABC confirms the government’s version that Basoa and Martínez “They have nothing to do with the CNI» and they emphasize that the situation of both is “very complicated and delicate” because Venezuela accuses them of very serious crimes and the Chavista regime is not going to change its version. It is the word of the Maduro government against theirs.
There is “concern” about them and “freeing them will be very complicated,” says the same source, who attributes this Venezuelan tactic to Cuba’s way of acting – which I started using it in 1990– and which consists of accusing prisoners of plotting against the leader. Faced with this scenario, one of the situations that could arise is that Basoa and Martínez end up admitting that they belong to the CNI, even if it is not true, in exchange for the Chavista regime ending up releasing them because “Venezuela must lie until the end”.
Diplomatic relations with Venezuela are not at a good time given the situation of Basoa and Martínez. In addition to the statements of Edmundo González and Robles, the Congress of Deputies recognized the opposition leader as the elected president of Venezuela. Two days later, Sánchez kept a low profile when he received Edmundo González with a walk in the gardens of the Moncloa Palace.
Meanwhile, in Caracas, two young people were arrested, so everything seems to indicate that in the midst of these diplomatic tensions, another issue was at stake: the safety of two Spanish citizens who, according to their families, were in Venezuela for tourism. Two Spanish citizens that the Chavista government is now using as political prisoners.
