After two tumultuous years, a Spanish ambassador returns to Venezuela

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during a press conference in Madrid on December 27, 2022. © Paul White / AP

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Change of diplomatic course in Madrid vis-à-vis Venezuela.

After withdrawing its ambassador in November 2020, in protest against the political regime, Spain appointed a new ambassador to Caracas on Tuesday, December 27.

This is Ramon Santos, who was previously stationed in Bolivia.

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Relations between Madrid and Caracas are improving.

The best proof of this is the appointment of a new ambassador, when the representation had been empty since 2020, explains our correspondent in Madrid, 

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“ 

 ,” announced the government of socialist Pedro Sanchez. 

The new ambassador, appointed on Tuesday, December 27, had held the post of Trade Officer at the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela since November 2021, the highest diplomatic representation in this country since the post of ambassador became vacant at the end of 2020.

At the time, the government of Pedro Sanchez withdrew its ambassador, Jesus Silva, to show its outright rejection of the type of power in Venezuela, after the 2018 elections that Madrid and the European Union had described as rigged and in which the political opposition had been sidelined or incarcerated.

For its part, Caracas had accused the Spanish representative of having facilitated

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A message of appeasement 

This appointment is therefore a clear message of appeasement between two countries that have powerful interests in common, particularly in economic terms.

Several factors have operated: the fact that thanks to the energy and fuel crisis, Venezuela has once again become a more attractive country for the West.

The fact also that, recently, the regime of Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition of the South American country have spoken in Mexico.

In this new context, Spain hopes that things will change in Caracas and that the next elections in 2024 will be fully democratic.

►Also read: Historic agreement between Venezuelans in Mexico City, the United States gives way

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• Venezuela

• Spain

• Diplomacy

• pedro sanchez

• Nicola Maduro