The Government is trying during the last hours to placate the scandal generated by the barrage and irresponsible meeting of José Luis Ábalos with the Vice President Chavez Delcy Rodríguez on the plane that brought her to Madrid from Caracas. After modifying his version several times, the minister became entangled in a confusing explanation to end up admitting to have seen himself "fortuitously" with one of the main leaders of the Maduro regime. Yesterday, three days after the case broke out, Pedro Sánchez backed Ábalos, saying that "he did everything he could to avoid a diplomatic crisis", to the extent that the minister operated to prevent Rodriguez from stepping on Spanish territory, an end he is prohibited by the sanctions received for violation of human rights. Far from being a transparent explanation of an episode that erodes the European position in relation to Venezuela , the words of the President of the Government sound like an improvised argument to try to evade his responsibility, which happens to cease Ábalos if he continues to show himself refractory to resign.

After evidencing the deception of the secretary of the Socialist Organization to hide his encounter with Maduro's number two, it is embarrassing that Sanchez presents as a gesture of diplomatic expertise the opacity of an encounter whose official version was denied even by the Police. What underlies this shameful gruesome is the blow given by the Government in its position on Venezuela and, on the other, the overlapping crisis that divides the Coalition Executive . Pedro Sánchez, although it cost him, ended up recognizing Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela. That he has refused to receive him, in contrast to Macron or Merkel, accredits Sánchez's turn, hostage to the interests and demands of Podemos. The president still does not clearly explain the position of the Government in a core issue in the geopolitics of Latin America. In this way, he rebuffs Guaidó, punishes with his alleged equidistance the Venezuelans who suffer the abject tyranny of Chavismo and forsakes the Venezuelan exile, which yesterday manifested itself massively in Madrid.

Ábalos must resign his position as a result of negligence that borders on illegality if it is proven that Delcy Rodríguez left the plane in Barajas to step on national territory. In any case, we are not facing an isolated skid . It is part of a change - encouraged by Zapatero - in Madrid's position on Venezuela, which is causing the internal division to emerge within the Executive. "I came to stay and no one kicks me out," said Ábalos yesterday, who appealed to his service sheet in his party "since 1976". The Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda pointed out that PP, Vox and Cs -formations that have demanded his resignation-, do not try to knock him down, but the PSOE. His unkempt tone and the unequivocal will to fly socialist acronyms against the adventures of "others" are veiled messages addressed to La Moncloa. Internal cracks in the Executive are increasingly evident . Sanchez's lack of leadership, coupled with the friction between PSOE and Podemos, threatens to turn the Government into a pressure cooker whose price Spain will pay in the form of ungovernability.

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Editorial Ábalos must resign and Sánchez support Venezuelans

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