Albares insists that Edmundo González met and signed what he wanted at the Spanish embassy and that Spain only protected him
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares insisted on Friday that “everything that happened” at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Venezuela where Edmundo González was taking refuge was at the initiative of the opposition leader, who found himself “in terrible, very difficult circumstances” and to whom Spain limited itself to “offering a space of tranquility and security” so that he could speak, meet or make the decisions he considered. He added that neither the ambassador nor any official participated in the drafting or preparation of the document that González signed admitting, according to him, under duress, the victory of Nicolás Maduro in the elections. “Everything that happened around his arrival in Spain was at the request of Edmundo González, the entry into the Embassy, the asylum and the conversations he had.”
In an interview on TVE, Albares repeatedly refused to give a detailed account of what happened at the ambassador’s residence in Venezuela, where González met, in the presence of the ambassador, with two heavyweights of the Maduro regime, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge, President of Parliament. With them he signed the document in which he admitted Maduro’s victory. Albares denied that the Government or the embassy participated in the preparation of the document. He simply said that Spain limited itself to providing a space of “tranquility, security and freedom” for González to stay there without fear of being detained for as long as he deemed appropriate, so that he could speak or meet with whomever he considered. “All the meetings he had at the Embassy were requested by González, I am not going to speculate on his decisions,” Albares said. Regarding the role of the ambassador, he said that his only instructions were to provide a space of freedom and “not to interfere.”
“We offered him a space of security, freedom and tranquility to decide, to meet with whoever he wanted. He was in very difficult circumstances.” He added that he could have stayed there for as long as he needed. He called on Edmundo González, the “only person authorised to clarify what happened at the ambassador’s residence”, to give details if he wants.
He has insisted, however, that González’s only wish was to come to Spain because he was in a “terrible” situation, afraid of being arrested. In fact, Albares has stated that if the Government had done what the PP said, González “would be arrested in Caracas.”
He also regretted that the PP has not apologized for the accusations launched on Thursday that the Government participated in the coercion of Edmundo González and in a “coup d’état” by Maduro to perpetuate himself in power, despite the fact that 10 hours have passed since the statement in which González himself denied these accusations.
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