The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has described Venezuela as a “dictatorial and authoritarian regime”, referring to arbitrary arrests – such as those of the two Spaniards this Saturday – or to the fact that the opposition leader, Edmundo González, had to flee the country and seek political asylum in Spain.
The head of European diplomacy stressed that by stating that Venezuela is a dictatorial regime, “we are not repairing anything” and that repairing things sometimes requires “a certain verbal restraint.”
“But let’s not be mistaken about the nature of things. Venezuela called elections, but it was not a democracy before and it is even less so after,” he added in statements to Telecinco, recalling “more than 2,000 detainees, seven million emigrants” and the opposition leaders in exile.
His words led the PP to ask the head of the Executive to follow in their footsteps. “Come on, Sánchez. It’s not that difficult. You can do it too. Or maybe not. A minimum of moral clarity is enough,” said popular deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo in her X account.
The PP thus continues to pressure the government of Pedro Sánchez to consider Venezuela a dictatorship, at a time of diplomatic crisis, after Maduro’s executive summoned the Spanish ambassador in Caracas and called its representative to Madrid for consultations, after the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, described this Caribbean country as a dictatorship.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party will continue to demand that the government recognize Edmundo González Urrutia as the elected president of Venezuela. Congress has already requested the adoption of this recognition, with the votes of the PP, Vox and PNV, and this week the Senate will also do so, where the Popular Party has an absolute majority.
In addition, the debate on Venezuela will reach the European Parliament on Tuesday, where two groups are demanding recognition of the opposition leader as president-elect and a resolution will be voted on next Thursday.
Neither Spain nor the European Union have recognized the legitimacy of the victory attributed to Nicolás Maduro, as the electoral results proving it have not been published, although they have not recognized González Urrutia as the legitimate winner of the Venezuelan elections.
