Tensions persist between Venezuela and Spain. Following the arrest of two Spaniards by the Venezuelan government this Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that Spain is involved in a political destabilization operation in Venezuela and “categorically rejected any insinuation” on this subject. It also confirmed that the detainees are not part of the National Intelligence Center (CNI).
In announcing the arrest of the two Spaniards from Bilbao, the Minister of the Interior and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, also claimed that Spain “was going to provide mercenaries” for an alleged operation led by the United States.
Missing since last Monday
Little by little, more and more information is emerging about the two detainees, accused among other things of being part of a US-led operation to assassinate Nicolas Maduro. They are José María Basoa and Andrés Martínez Adasne and they were arrested in Puerto Ayacucho. Their relatives reported their disappearance to the Ertzaintza last Monday. As reported by the Basque Department of Security, the families of the two men went to a police station to report that they had traveled to Venezuela and that “they had not been able to contact them for days.”
The Basque police carried out “the appropriate procedures”, according to these sources, and found that both had been arrested, which was communicated to both families, although the reason for these arrests was not given.
Andrés Martínez Adasme's father told the newspaper El Mundo: that his son and the other person arrested, both from Bilbao, were on vacation and he insisted that they were not part of the CNI. The Spanish Embassy in Venezuela is waiting to have access to the two detainees accused of terrorism, to verify their identity and nationality and, if they are Spanish citizens, to know what exactly they are accused of and that they can receive all the necessary assistance.
The asylum of Edmundo González
This new episode in the crisis between Spain and Venezuela comes six days after the opposition leader Edmundo González visited Spain and the executive of Pedro Sánchez granted him asylum in the country. A journey that took place after eight intense days of negotiations between the different partiesin which former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero played a key role.
Negotiations criticized by the Popular Party, which accuses the government of being “an accomplice of the Bolivarian dictatorship.” On Wednesday, with the positive vote of the PNV, an illegal proposal from the PP was adopted that leaves the government in a minority and in which it is requested to recognize González Urrutia as “president-elect.”
Hours later, the president of the Venezuelan Assembly asked the Foreign Affairs Committee to approve a resolution aimed at urging the Maduro government to “break off” relations with Spain. And on Thursday night, Venezuela called for consultations. to his ambassador in Madrid while describing as “interference” certain statements by the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, in which she described Venezuela as a “dictatorship.”