Spain denies negotiations with Venezuela over asylum for opposition leader

Spain’s Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, denied this Sunday (8) any type of negotiation between his country’s government and Nicolás Maduro’s regime for the granting of political asylum to Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, who embarked for the European country this Saturday (7).

The statement came moments after Venezuela’s attorney general, Chavista Tarek William Saab, said the two countries had agreed on a “safe conduct” to allow González, who was sheltering in the Spanish embassy in Caracas, to leave.

Albares, in an interview with Spanish state television, assured that the asylum request was a personal request from González and that there was no political interference between the governments.

“There was no political negotiation between the Spanish and Venezuelan governments. Political asylum was a personal request from Edmundo González,” the foreign minister said. He also rejected any involvement of former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the negotiations, denying rumors about a possible mediation.

The Spanish government’s position on the Venezuelan crisis remains the same, according to Albares, who reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the “political rights of Venezuelans.” However, the foreign minister avoided making more incisive comments on the political situation in Venezuela, claiming that he “does not want to make gestures that do not help respect the democratic will of Venezuelans.” He also recalled that the Spanish government had requested access to the voting records of the elections, but had not received a satisfactory response from the Venezuelan authorities.

Also on Sunday, Saab said during a press conference that the Maduro regime and Spain had negotiated a “safe conduct” for González. Saab said that Maduro “respected the right to asylum provided for in the Venezuelan Constitution” and that González’s departure from the country was agreed upon legally.

“The governments of Spain and Venezuela agreed to grant safe conduct to citizen Edmundo González Urrutia so that he could leave the national territory and submit to the asylum granted by Spain,” Saab declared.

In Venezuela, González is the target of an arrest warrant that was issued by the Venezuelan Justice Department at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, both bodies controlled by Chavismo, under the accusation of releasing the voting records that confirm his victory in the elections, in contrast to the fraudulent official result that declared Nicolás Maduro as the winner.