• Analysis: who is who in the relations between Spain and Venezuela
  • Crisis: Deployment of the Spanish Government to Juan Guaidó

History repeats itself. Juan Guaidó's team seeks to set up a meeting between the legitimate president of the Venezuelan Parliament and Donald Trump, one of its main supporters. A give and take hitherto unsuccessful, which has been going on for a week and that closely resembles the one lived with the Spanish head of government, Pedro Sánchez.

In between are the meetings with Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau, four of the most powerful leaders on the planet, which increases the paradox: Trump was the first president who recognized Guaidó in 2019 at the head of the interim administration and Sánchez, the first head of government in Europe to give him his support, as the Venezuelan leader himself insisted on emphasizing his time in Madrid.

"It seems that Trump has a very busy agenda," Carlos Berrizbeitia, second vice president of the National Assembly (AN) acknowledged in Caracas yesterday, as if he were a déjà-vu with as many differences as they were: the Washington government is also completing a strategic change in his Venezuela plan, although in this case there is still hope for a "happy ending" for Guaidó.

The difference is obvious: Trump is surrounded by officials with different criteria about Venezuela, but Sanchez now rules with Podemos, one of Nicolás Maduro's main allies in Europe.

The opposition leader has no public agenda once the European tour is over and has visited Canada, determined to keep a low profile while the key meeting at the end of the tour takes place.

At least that's how it is scheduled until next Saturday, when he intends to reissue what he lived in Madrid, but this time with the Venezuelan diaspora in Miami. Everything pointed to a new mass bath, but the discrepancies that arose after Trudeau announced his intention to include the Cuban government in a future negotiation have thrown unexpected clouds.

In spite of everything, a political source close to Guaidó transferred to EL MUNDO his conviction that the meeting with the US president will finally be achieved, although this could be private.

"Guaidó has arrived in the US in a week where Trump's agenda is complicated with previous commitments, but it is still very likely that he will receive it before he returns to Venezuela," Venezuelan internationalist Mariano de Alba said from Washington to EL MUNDO . A key week for Trump because tomorrow Friday will be defined if witnesses are called in the impeachment process, on Tuesday he presented the controversial proposal for the plan for the Arab-Israeli conflict and yesterday signed the renegotiation of the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.

"For Guaidó it is key that the meeting be completed, not so much because of the substance of the discussion, but to confirm the support that the United States has been giving, at a time when a change in strategy by the US administration is much discussed. And, also important, to obtain an additional guarantee of a smooth return to Venezuela, "added De Alba.

"I'm starting to wonder if both the White House and Guaidó want there to be initial reports that Trump won't meet him, just so they can contradict him with a 'surprise meeting' that Guaidó can use to claim as a victory," Geoff said. Ramsey, from the Washington Office for Latin American Affairs.

One option is for the meeting to be private at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's summer home in South Beach, however that is not yet defined. In Trump's public agenda there is no meeting with Guaidó this week.

"If Guaidó passes through the United States and does not meet with Trump, it looks bad for both of them. For Guaidó it would generate criticism because it would be said that the trip is a failure. And it would also be used by Trump's opponents as proof that it has simply been completely forgotten about Venezuela , "Ramsey said for EL MUNDO.

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  • Venezuela
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Nicolás Maduro
  • Justin Trudeau
  • Juan Guaidó
  • U.S
  • Donald Trump

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