The Daily Journalist
“I have ordered that all relations with Spain be reviewed in response to the unfriendly act of meddling and support for right-wing groups who use violence in Venezuela by Rajoy’s party”. Declared the president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro as announced yesterday in a televised address that his government opened affecting the biggest political crisis in our country in recent years. The leader and Chavez follower spared no epithets against the Spanish government, urging Rajoy prime minister of Spain to “mind his own business.”
He referred to the meeting held last Wednesday in Madrid by the Spanish president and Lilian Tintori and Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, jailed since last February who recently has become one of the most militant activists for human rights protesting against Chavez’s crackdown.
Rajoy met with Tintori at the party headquarters in Genoa, 13, and not in La Moncloa. He did it to show that he received the activist as President of the People’s Party and not as representative of the Government; a diplomatic gesture pointed to not disturb Caracas. Rajoy, showed said the “EU concern about the trial of Leopoldo López and the need to respect freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate.” But to no avail, but as an insult interpreted the diplomatic wire in Caracas. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on Thursday crossed “irresponsible and disrespectful” the meeting between Rajoy and Tintori. And yesterday, Maduro, went further to warn directly to his Spanish counterpart: “Respect Venezuela as we respect the Spanish people.” The successor to Chávez stressed that “respect for the inner life [third country] is sacred.”
“President Rajoy, the abuser is getting into the internal affairs of Venezuela, when simply has no moral right to speak of the Bolivarian Venezuela,” said Maduro, making clear their desire to provoke a crisis on bilateral first degree.
“Don’t mess with my country Rajoy, “Venezuela will be respected!” Did you hear? We had enough patience with people like you ultra-right conservatives who come now to support groups responsible for the deaths of more than 40 Venezuelans, responsible for terrorist attacks? “stressed the Venezuelan president, referring to jailed Leopoldo Lopez and 70 other opponents-mostly students-who were arrested in February after mass protests against Government paralyzed major Venezuelan cities.
However, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein, on Monday demanded the immediate release of Lopez and the other political prisoners, “whose arbitrary and prolonged detention causes international concern. ”
Foreign sources claimed last night that the Spanish Government has no intention at the moment to comment on this episode. This is a new hot potato extraordinarily complicated affecting bilateral relations for years, despite the strong economic interests shared by both countries and that there are matters of State that require collaboration, as the immigration issue more than 200,000 Venezuelans residing in our country may also need to be reviewed.
After the electoral victory in April 2013 Maduro and allegations of electoral fraud, Spanish Foreign Minister spoke in favor of an “audit” of the vote, which was described by Caracas as an “unacceptable interference”. Since then, Maduro demanded “rectification, otherwise we will take exemplary measures in all diplomatic, economic and political orders.” That fire it off days later the head of Spanish diplomacy with an explicit recognition of the victory of Maduro that Chavez picked as an apology.
More complicated was to repair relations between Spain and Venezuela in 2007 after the episode featuring the King Juan Carlos when he snapped the then President Chávez “Why do not you shut up”. For four months, bilateral diplomatic channels broke. The situation got fixed when the two protagonists of the event found in the Palace of Marivent (Mallorca) and the monarch gave Chavez a T-shirt printed with the unforgettable question.
