Crisis with Spain: Venezuela rejects any “interference” from Madrid

Venezuela protested on Friday Spain's attitude towards the controversial re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, saying it would not accept “any interference” from Madrid, following a meeting between Venezuela's foreign minister and the Spanish ambassador to Caracas.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have deteriorated largely after statements on Thursday by Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles, who called Venezuela a “dictatorship.”

These remarks coincided with the reception by the President of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez of the opposition candidate in the July presidential election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to whom Spain has granted asylum.

“We will not accept any interference from the Spanish government in matters that fall within the exclusive competence of Venezuelans,” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil wrote in a statement.

The latter also recalled the Venezuelan ambassador to Spain for consultations.

“The government of Venezuela will take the necessary measures, within the framework of international law and Bolivarian peace diplomacy, to protect its sovereignty,” he continued.

Mr Gil, who received Ambassador Ramon Santos in the morning, had considered Thursday evening that Mrs Robles' remarks were “insolent and rude”, adding that they testified to “a deterioration” of bilateral relations between Caracas and Madrid.

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, tried to calm things down.

“Summoning an ambassador, I have already done it on several occasions, and a recall for consultations are sovereign decisions of each State and, therefore, there is nothing to comment on”, he declared Friday on the public radio RNE.

This outbreak of diplomatic fever comes at a time when the head of the Spanish government received Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in Madrid on Thursday, who claims victory in the presidential election of July 28 against Mr. Maduro, proclaimed winner for a third term.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, reaffirmed in the evening in Madrid that “the elections were not won by Maduro”, without however recognising Gonzalez Urrutia as president-elect, whom he nevertheless invited to Brussels.

– US sanctions –

Relations between Madrid and Caracas had begun to deteriorate on Thursday after a call from the president of the Venezuelan Parliament Jorge Rodriguez, Mr Maduro's campaign leader during the presidential campaign, to break off “all relations” with Spain.

M. Rodriguez intended to protest against a vote in the Spanish Parliament, which on Wednesday approved a resolution tabled by the Popular Party (PP, right), the main opposition party to Pedro Sanchez, asking Madrid to recognize Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as president of Venezuela.

A portrait of Venezuelan president contested Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, September 12, 2024 © AFP – Juan BARRETO

This parliamentary proposal has only symbolic value, since only the executive has the power to recognize as president-elect this politician who arrived in Spain on Sunday aboard a Spanish army plane after fleeing Venezuela, where he was the subject of an arrest warrant.

Spain, like all the other member states of the European Union, is demanding the full publication of the minutes issued by the polling stations following the presidential election, which the Venezuelan authorities have not done, saying they were the victims of computer hacking.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Mr. Maduro the winner of the election, with 52% of the vote. But the opposition claims, based on the reports provided by its scrutineers, that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.

In the absence of complete results, EU countries have so far refused to recognize a winner.

This is not the case for the United States, which decided to recognize Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia as president and announced sanctions on Thursday against 16 people close to Mr. Maduro for “obstructing” the presidential election.

Among these people – who are added to a hundred others already sanctioned – four military personnel, the president of the Supreme Court and members of the CNE.

Caracas had immediately rejected “with the greatest firmness” these measures. Friday, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino assured that the armed forces – one of the essential cogs of the regime – were not “corruptible” and would not allow themselves to be “intimidated by the imperial scourge” of the United States. The Supreme Court and the CNE also condemned the sanctions.

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