The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has called Venezuela a “dictatorial” and “authoritarian” regime. In Venezuela, Borrell said in an interview with Telecinco, “there are more than 2,000 people arbitrarily detained after the elections.” [del pasado 28 de julio]”The opposition leader had to flee, political parties are subject to a thousand limitations in their actions, there are seven million Venezuelans who have fled their country… What do you call all this? Well, of course, it's a dictatorial regime,” said the man who was Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2018 and 2019.
The head of European diplomacy, however, 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” to add later: “But we are not mistaken about the nature of things. Venezuela called elections, but it was not a democracy before and it is certainly not the case since.”
After the interview was broadcast, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil responded to the head of European diplomacy. “When we talk about the dump of history, we are referring to where Borrell is now, from interview to interview, a spokesperson for evil, withdrawn from politics with bloodstained hands, doubly failed in his attempts to harm the Venezuelan people, invent fictitious governments (Guaidó 1.0 and 2.0) and above all transform the European Union into a decrepit, colonialist and warlike institution. Too bad for the others! Here we tell Venezuela to refer to such a dark legacy of a third person like Borrell,” he said on his Telegram channel.
Borrell's statements come the same week that Defense Minister Margarita Robles also called the Venezuelan regime a “dictatorship,” something no member of the government had done until now. Robles' words, spoken Thursday at a book presentation in Madrid, sparked an angry and immediate reaction from Venezuelan authorities.
The chancellor of Nicolas Maduro's government, Yván Gil, He called his ambassador in Madrid, Gladys Gutiérrez, for consultations. and summoned the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, Ramón Santos. Gil called the Spanish minister's statements “insolent, intrusive and rude.” He also said that “they are evidence of a deterioration in relations between the two countries.” The minister Jose Manuel Albares He tried on Friday to downplay the protest. These are “sovereign decisions” of the Venezuelan government on which “there is nothing to comment,” Albares told RNE, refusing to enter into the controversy.
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Robles' intervention also caused some unease within the government. “It complicated everything for us and also gave the PP an absurd opportunity to criticize the government.” Executive sources told EL PAÍS when analyzing the minister's words. And so it was. The PP quickly took advantage of this to ensure that it agreed with Robles and that this was also what the president had to say.
Borrel's interview also prompted the PP to react. “Come on, Sánchez. It's not that difficult. You can do it too. Or maybe not. A minimum of moral clarity is enough,” encouraged representative Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo on her X account.
Tensions between Spain and Venezuela have increased in recent days, following the Congress of Deputies approve this Wednesday a proposal of the PP so that the Spanish government recognize the opposition leader and presumed winner of the elections, Edmundo González, as the elected president of this country.
In January 2019, in the context of another Venezuelan crisis, after the self-proclamation of the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as president, Pedro Sánchez said in reference to Maduro: “Whoever responds with bullets and prisons to the desire for freedom, 'He's a socialist, he's a tyrant.' But we are in another time and in other circumstances, after the failure of the international community to make Guaidó president.
Unlike the PP, which is in favour of putting pressure on Nicolas Maduro, Spanish diplomacy is trying not to fuel the diplomatic crisis so as not to lose its influence in the country. Government sources believe, like the European Union, that the only way out of the Venezuelan crisis is a negotiated agreement between Maduro and the opposition, and they want to maintain the capacity for dialogue with both parties. It was this dialogue that allowed Edmundo González and his wife to leave the country last Saturday and go into exile in Spain.