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The message that the Government constantly repeats in recent weeks to everyone who wants to hear it is that its position on the crisis in Venezuela is exactly the same as a year ago, but the solution is not. Pedro Sánchez considers, and all his spokesmen transmit it, that after the change in the "balance of forces" in the American country in the last 12 months, "there is a lot of tactics but a strategy is missing."

And what they are looking for now is "an exit strategy, not just a tactic," according to diplomatic sources. The problem is that, right now, what the Foreign Minister, Arancha González Laya, says or thinks, is one thing, and what happens in Moncloa is a very different one.

In the last two years, Spain has been the queen of the blows over Venezuela, and that has a direct impact on the position of the European Union. Our country has always presumed to be the main interlocutor and aspired to be the main link through which all decisions regarding Latin America pass. It is the partner that best knows her, the one with the most contacts (and interests), a historical legacy, a common language with most neighbors. But one thing is to want it and another to be, and one to want it and another to really look for it.

For quite some time, the impulse of the Executive of Mariano Rajoy was key to articulate economic sanctions to the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Not to Venezuela, because only specific punishments were sought against their leaders, with a prohibition to enter or transit through the EU, seizure of goods or a ban on trade of all types of material that can be used for repression. Hence the list in which Delcy Rodríguez is with other Bolivarian leaders.

However, in October 2018, just a few months after coming to power, the now high representative for Foreign Policy and then Foreign Minister Josep Borrell went to Brussels with a very important turn.

Borrell's turn in 2018

Spain, suddenly, stopped betting on sanctions and proposed to do so through dialogue. He did not advocate removing the existing ones, but he did stop any possibility of additional ones. He maintained the message of respect for human rights, but introduced the need for a political dialogue and to support the Contact Group.

It was a remarkable turn, because just a few months before, in January first and in June later, just a few days before the motion of censure, new names had been blacklisted . And the general feeling was that, before the blockade, the pressure should increase.

Then there were more doubts. The caution with the recognition of Juan Guaidó, who made other countries take the leading position in Brussels, as in the crises of Bolivia or Nicaragua. The Government wanted to announce the recognition accompanied by the United Kingdom, France or Germany, among others.

The European Parliament had already done so, but in Madrid, with the usual shyness and obsession with consensus and constructive position, they did not want to go alone under any circumstances, and that made other leaders much more forceful.

More shocking for many of his colleagues was the fact that, just a few weeks ago, Sanchez refused to receive Guaido himself, leaving the reception that in Paris or London had corresponded to Boris Johnson or Emmanuel Macron .

Spain defends that "no" changed its "position"

"We understand that a feeling has been created that Spain has changed its position on Venezuela, but it is not so. We have 300,000 Venezuelans and there are 300,000 Spaniards in Venezuela; Leopoldo López has been at the Caracas embassy for a year. We are doing things that do not appear in the newspapers. With this controversy we contribute to finding more than helping to solve. That Macron or Mark Rutte take a picture with Guaidó seems great to me, but the one that has 300,000 Venezuelans and takes citizens out of the country and gives passwords is Spain, "diplomatic sources explain.

The last blow is the change of title for Guaidó. There is no single position in the EU on recognition because up to three countries have been reluctant, for different reasons. Therefore, the formula that many are using is to express their unconditional support for "the National Assembly, as the only democratically elected body in Venezuela, and Juan Guaidó as its legitimate president."

They do not call him the president of the country, but the president in charge until the elections. And they receive it with honors from the head of government, a sufficiently ambiguous but also clear form for the European foreign ministries.

A turn of Spain like October 2018 would have a drastic impact. The objective then was a political commitment, but also an ideological one, with which it was sought to relieve some of the pressure on Maduro and thus try to force mediation and negotiation between the parties that lead to elections. It never happened. On the contrary, the situation has continued to deteriorate.

An undecided future

The course of now is not clear. Maduro's opposition forces are broken, there is internal division, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is still entangling and Spain is waiting. But nobody doubts in Brussels that the presence of Unidos Podemos in the Government plays a leading role in the ups and downs.

Tildar of "opposition leader" to Guaidó is what Pablo Iglesias did when discussing his visit to Madrid while the great powers did the opposite. Recently, senior government officials have assured people such important figures in the material as MEP Leopoldo López , father of the refugee leader in Caracas, that the Executive's position has not changed, but the facts are stubborn.

And what they reflect is not so much lies, or hypocrisy of the new owner, but a clear bicefalia and that decision-making is not in the Palace of Santa Cruz, but in Iván Redondo's office. Damageing the predictability and credibility of external action.

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  • Venezuela
  • Spain
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Juan Guaidó
  • European Parliament
  • Pablo Iglesias
  • Nicolás Maduro
  • United We Can
  • European Union
  • Ivan Round

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