Behind the Congress of Deputies, a group of 30 Venezuelans carrying their country’s flags gathered this afternoon at the gates of the Ateneo de Madrid. They were waiting for the former president of the government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who was reprimanded as soon as he got out of the car that took him to Prado Street in Madrid, where presents today his latest book “Democracy and its rights” with a group of professors and lawyers.
Shouting “freedom, freedom”, “scoundrel” and “Madam, who are you hanging out with”, the group of Venezuelans called Zapatero a “corrupt traitor” and “son of a bitch”, who upon his arrival entered the Ateneo, while they continued to call him a “coward” and “Zapatero sold out”.
The cries of opponents of the regime of Venezuela, who since July 28 have been living helplessly from Spain because of the actions of Nicolas Maduro, could be heard from inside the building. The “indignation” and “anger”, according to two of these Venezuelans who were on the street, are not surprising: Zapatero, very close to the regime of Nicolas Maduro and the brothers Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, is the only former president of the country’s government who has not recognized Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela and has not publicly asked the regime to present the minutes of the elections.
Zapatero was not seen at a public event since last Aprilwhen he attended a Nueva Economía Fórum breakfast at the Ritz Hotel in Madrid. At that time, it had been announced that Begoña Gómez was going to be investigated for influence peddling and Zapatero came to Pedro Sánchez’s defense, criticizing the “hypocrisy” of the right for attacking the family of the prime minister. “Spain needs him,” the former president said of Sánchez. Five months later, Zapatero reappeared this afternoon at a particularly tense moment after the latest information revealed by the Venezuelan government that points to him as a key player in Edmundo González’s departure from the country to favor the Maduro regime.
And, as ABC published a few days ago, Zapatero sent Venezuelan lawyer and former deputy Eudoro González to act as a “double agent” between Chavismo and the team of Edmundo González, whom he knows from his political time in Venezuela. Eudoro González was present at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, while the Venezuelan opponent suffered “all kinds of coercion,” as he himself stated upon his arrival in Madrid on September 8, and which finally forced him to leave Venezuela and apply for political asylum in Spain.
