The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has demanded that the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, confirm both the identity and the place where the two Spanish citizens arrested in the framework of what the Venezuelan Government considers a plot orchestrated by the opposition to destabilise the country are being held.
Albares spoke by phone this Tuesday with the Venezuelan foreign minister, as he himself told the press upon his arrival at the Senate, in what was the first contact at government level since Caracas announced on Sunday the arrest of José María Basoa Valdovinos and Andrés Martínez Adasme, residents of Bilbao. He also reported that this same message had been conveyed to the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires in Madrid, who was summoned this morning to Foreign Affairs, since Caracas recalled its ambassador last Friday. “At this time we still have no confirmation of the identity, the location or the charges against the two Spaniards arrested,” Albares denounced.
The minister has assured that the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has reiterated to him that “these two citizens have no connection whatsoever with any Spanish public body, much less with the CNI,” as the current Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has assured, without providing evidence.
In response in the Senate to the PP on whether it considers Venezuela to be a dictatorial regime, Albares has pointed out that, “if they are so concerned [a los populares] what is a dictatorship or not”, why don’t they use that term for Franco, instead of approving autonomous concord laws without calling him. “Why don’t they call Franco’s dictatorship a dictatorship?”, he snapped at the PP spokesperson in the Senate, Alicia García, who asked him to follow the example of other socialists, such as the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and dare to call Nicolás Maduro a “dictator”.
However, Albares has urged the PP to repeal the memory laws passed in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, if they recognise that Franco was a dictator. The minister explained to the senators that he met on Tuesday with the Venezuelan opposition candidate in the July presidential elections, Edmundo González, and indicated to them that if he had done what the PP asked him to do, recognise him as legitimate president, now “he would not be free in Madrid, but detained in Caracas”.
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