The photo of the infamous extortion of Delcy Rodriguez has Edmundo Gonzalez At the Spanish Embassy he left a striking detail: the informal attire of the Spanish ambassador Ramon Santosunsuitable for a career diplomat. Santos is seen from behind in the photo, wearing a white, rumpled linen guayabera with a hood. Santos’s carefree, almost at-home appearance further reinforces the burden of opprobrium in this photo. Santos has previously been denounced for alleged crimes of threats and coercion, although González Urrutia has denied being coerced by Pedro Sánchez’s government.
“Given the different versions that are circulating regarding an alleged coercion by officials of the Spanish State, including Ambassador Ramón Santos, against me, I wish to clarify categorically the following: I was not coerced by the Spanish government or the Spanish ambassador to Venezuela, Ramón Santos. The diplomatic efforts made had the sole purpose of facilitating my departure from the country, without exerting any pressure on me,” González said in a statement released Thursday.
“The Spanish Government has undertaken to guarantee my safety during the journey on board the Spanish Armed Forces aircraft, as well as upon my arrival in Spain, as it happened. The main purpose of these measures was to allow the continuity of the processing of my asylum application before the Spanish State, in conditions of security and respect for my rights. I would like to emphasize that these efforts have been supervised and facilitated directly by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, guaranteeing at all times my well-being and freedom of decision. With this statement, I hope to clarify any doubts or misunderstandings regarding the nature of my transfer and reiterate my gratitude to the Spanish authorities for their support and commitment to the protection of human rights,” he concluded.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares on Thursday urged Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to “immediately disavow” the “slander” by PP deputy secretary for institutional affairs Esteban González Pons about the Spanish government’s role in the departure from Venezuela of opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutía. “I demand that Mr. Feijóo disavow the MEP who slandered Spain and accused it of absurd but extremely insulting things for our country,” Albares told reporters after attending a meeting in Brussels to try to advance a post-Brexit Gibraltar deal.
González Pons said Thursday that the Spanish government is involved “as a necessary cooperator” in the “coup that occurred in Venezuela” and named former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as the “great conspirator” of the “operation.” Pons said Thursday in an interview with EsRadio that González was being housed in the Dutch embassy and that “he was transferred to the residence of the Spanish ambassador so that blackmail and coercion would be possible.” According to the PP leader, the government “is complicit in the operation to make Maduro a dictator for longer” and acts as a “necessary collaborator” in the “dictator’s” maneuver to “decapitate the democratic opposition in Venezuela.”
