Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares met on Tuesday with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, to whom he informed that the two Spanish citizens detained in that country and accused of preparing terrorist acts have no links with Spanish organizations “and much less with the CNI.”
As he explained to journalists in the corridors of the Senate, after stressing that the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, confirmed again this Tuesday, this total absence of links with the National Intelligence Center (CNI) or any other public body. Albares also demanded that the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yván Gil, “as provided for in the Vienna Convention,” confirm the identity of the detainees, indicate where they are currently located and explain under what charges they were detained.
The minister said he had informed the Chancellor that “of course” Spain would exercise its diplomatic and consular protection for the detainees, “as always” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does with all detainees abroad of Spanish nationality. The detainees are Andrés Martínez Adasme and José María Basoa Valdovinos from Bilbao, aged 32 and 35 respectively.
For his part, Gil maintained the accusations against Spanish citizens through his Telegram channel. “Venezuela will not tolerate an escalation of aggression and interference by Spain, which in recent years has become a haven for terrorists and criminals linked to fascism in our country,” he said in a brief statement.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister defended that his country “is prepared to take measures that protect sovereignty” against those who, according to him, ignore constitutional institutions. “A Guaidó 2.0 will fail again,” he stressed.
“We have dismantled and revealed a terrorist plan, which aimed to attack the people, to assassinate the president, the vice president and other officials, led by an active American military officer and with people involved of Spanish origin who have been publicly identified by our Ministry of Defense, Interior, Justice and Peace,” the note defends. “Preliminary investigations implicate in terrorist acts these Spanish citizens, who also have links with the Spanish National Intelligence Center, and I have reported this directly to Minister Albares,” he emphasizes.
Gil assured that his government wants the Spanish Executive to “rectify immediately, condemn terrorism without ambiguity and assume the commitments that correspond to it in the field of traditional law.”
