• Congress: Pedro Sánchez treats Juan Guaidó as "opposition leader" of Venezuela
  • 'Case Delcy'. Ábalos, the minister without answers
  • Venezuela.The Government and its partners prevent Congress from investigating Ábalos' meeting with Delcy Rodríguez

"Mr. Guaidó is two things at once: a president in charge and at the same time the leader of the opposition in Venezuela. Those are the two things he represents." With so salomonic words, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, has settled on Thursday, at the UN headquarters, the controversy unleashed after the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, referred to Juan Guaidó as "leader of the opposition "in the Congress of Deputies this Tuesday.

Sánchez's statement caused surprise because Spain, along with 55 other countries - among them, the EU and all its member countries, most of the Latin American countries, the United States and the Organization of American States - recognize Guaidó as president of Venezuela .

Nicolás Maduro is the head of the Venezuelan State and Government for 21 other nations, including Russia, China, North Korea, Belarus , Cuba and Nicaragua. Nineteen more countries have proclaimed their neutrality. That includes the United Nations, which nonetheless recognizes de facto the authority of Maduro.

González Laya ignored the crisis unleashed after the meeting between the Minister of Transportation, José Luis Ábalos, and the Venezuelan Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez , was revealed on January 20 at the Madrid-Barajas airport. "When this happened, I was in Brussels, not in Spain, in a Council of Foreign Ministers," he said, before repeating that "I have nothing more to say."

In the articulation of the Spanish policy towards Venezuela, González Laya complained that "for now, I am having more success with our international partners outside Spain than within Spain", although it did not go into more details.

The head of the Spanish diplomacy limited herself to declaring that the Government's priorities for Venezuela are "humanitarian support and consensus building in the country around the holding of free, transparent and democratic elections."

González Laya settled the question by repeating that "I have said everything I had to say." Nor did he want to enter into considerations about whether Guaidó is the right person to lead Venezuela's transition towards democracy. "I think it is more useful to listen to what Mr. Juan Guaidó is saying in the last few hours, because he answers that question very well," he concluded.

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  • Venezuela
  • Spain
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Juan Guaidó
  • José Luis Ábalos
  • Un
  • Nicolás Maduro
  • Arancha González Laya
  • Delcy Rodriguez
  • U.S

Foreign policy The Foreign Minister denies a change in the policy towards Venezuela and says that it does not harm the relationship with the US

Politics PP and Citizens ask for a commission of inquiry in Congress on the meeting of Ábalos with Delcy Rodríguez

The Venezuelan Assembly asks the Congress of Deputies to investigate the meeting of Ábalos with Delcy Rodríguez