“I will always help this country to regain hope and have a future.” Former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero expressed these words this Tuesday in his first public appearance after the Venezuelan elections last August. Just before participating in the presentation of the book Democracy and its Rights (Península, 2024), coordinated by him, Zapatero acknowledged his mediation between the Venezuelan government and the country’s opposition and, specifically, in the departure of opposition leader Edmundo González, who was welcomed in Spain.
“When someone mediates, they have to be extraordinarily respectful,” the former president said, just before the event and without wanting to give his opinion on either the elections in Venezuela or what happened after, with the self-proclamation of Nicolas Maduro as president and the demand from the international community for the minutes of the results.
“The mediators have never spoken,” Zapatero added to avoid commenting on the situation in Venezuela. “I will always humbly help this country to regain hope and have a future,” he concluded, before emphasizing that his “way of helping is through dialogue” and that his plan is to find a “peaceful solution” to the Venezuelan conflict.
