Ramón Santos Martínez, until now in charge of Business at the legation, will be the new diplomatic representative after the departure of Jesús Silva in 2020 due to disagreements with the Government of Nicolás Maduro
The Government of Spain has distanced itself this Tuesday with the so-called president in charge and opposition leader Juan Guaidó by appointing Ramón Santos Martínez as the new ambassador to Venezuela, a position that had been left empty after the departure of Jesús Silva in 2020, when Moncloa opted for lowering the relationship with the Government of Nicolás Maduro to the level of charge d’affaires as a sign of his disagreement with the situation in the country.
The Council of Ministers has thus promoted the current Chargé d’Affaires in Venezuela, a position he held since November 2021, to the category of Spain’s highest representative in the Bolivarian country. The measure, although it has been expected for weeks, has occurred hours before this Thursday the Venezuelan opposition terminates the Presidency in charge of Guaidó for not having fulfilled its promise to carry out a democratic transition in Venezuela.
The appointment of a new ambassador in Venezuela by Spain, the European country that most supported the appointment of the opposition leader as president in charge, is interpreted as the result of the fall of the interim government. This collapse has been promoted by the new majority that make up the Primero Justicia (PJ, centrist) parties, the social democratic Acción Democrática (AD) and the social Christian Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT).
Diplomatic sources, however, have justified the appointment of Santos to Europa Press by the fact that 160,000 Spaniards reside in Venezuela and there are important interests to defend. They also highlight the willingness of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez to support the process of open dialogue in Mexico between the Executive of Maduro and his detractors. “Spain wants to be as useful as possible,” the sources have had an impact, recalling that France has maintained its ambassador in Caracas while Portugal recently proceeded to appoint its own to replace its business manager.
Santos Martínez, graduated in Law, Political Science and Sociology, with a Master’s in Constitutional Law and Political Science, was already the ambassador of Spain in Panama (2015-2019), in Bolivia (2008-2012) and has been assigned to the legations in Washington, Brussels-EU and Quito. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has held, among others, the posts of ambassador in Special Mission for the Ibero-American Summits and Multilateral Affairs of Ibero-America, deputy director general for Andean Community Countries, deputy director general for MERCOSUR and Chile countries, deputy director general for Cooperation with countries of Central America and the Caribbean, and Chief of Staff of the Secretary General of the AECID. He too, in December 2019, he was a special foreign envoy in Bolivia.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, advanced at the end of November in an interview that if the Venezuelan dialogue progressed “as we began to see”, the withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador in the country was a decision “perfectly susceptible to be reversed.” Even so, there are still other countries such as Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland or the Netherlands that continue to have a business manager in Caracas. The same is happening with the EU Delegation in the Venezuelan capital after expelling the European ambassador, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, from Caracas in February 2021 due to the sanctions imposed by the Twenty-seven against twenty Chavista deputies and officials.
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