Vecchio, Borges, González, Ledezma and Toledo during the event./ Photo: @LesterToledo
Eduardo González. 06/04/2018
Felipe González admitted yesterday his discrepancies with the mediating work that the also former president of the socialist Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is carrying out in Venezuela.
“Dialogue just for the sake of dialogue makes no sense, it only makes sense to solve problems”, González declared during a joint press conference with the former president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Julio Borges; Caracas’s mayor in the exile, Antonio Ledezma; and two leaders of Voluntad Popular, Carlos Vecchio and Lester Toledo.
“I completely disagree with this type of dialogue that the only thing that does it to give time to the Government of Venezuela”, he continued during the event, celebrated at Casa de América in Madrid.
In these moments, according to González, “the only thing that must be negotiated is the date of elections and guarantees for these to be clean”, which entails that the presidential election of 20 May “cannot be recognized”.
“I believe Nicolás Maduro when he says that he will never again call elections to lose them, and I assure you that he will honor that, that he will never hold elections with guarantees that he can lose”, he explained in an ironic tone. Nevertheless, he pointed out, “I believe him in a way different to that in which my colleague Zapatero believes him”.
The former president rejects any dialogue that only serves to “give time to the Government of Maduro”
According to González, so far, it has not been possible “to speak for even half an hour” with Zapatero about Venezuela. “He knows my opinion perfectly, because it is in writing, but we have not met, although I have offered him to do so”, he affirmed.
Furthermore, the former president compared the current political moment in Venezuela with the procés. “Maduro broke the rules of the game and the Constitution to elect a constituent assembly with full powers without universal suffrage, and something very similar happened on 6 and 7 September in Catalonia”.
In the same press conference, Antonio Ledezma asked Spain and the EU to “reject the fraudulent process organized by Maduro’s regime with the election of 20 May” and to tighten up and extend the current international sanctions.
Moreover, he claimed support to the complaint to be made “in the coming days” by the secretary general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, against Maduro before the International Criminal Court and asked for the president of the Government, Mariano Rajoy -who he met subsequently-, “to speed up” the granting of asylum to “20,000 exiled people that have requested it”.
Apart from Rajoy and González, the Venezuelan delegation -which met President Emmanuel Macron the day before in Paris- met the Foreign Minister, Alfonso Dastis, yesterday and the president of Ciudadanos, Albert Rivera.