Ambassador Mario Isea./ Photo: A. Rubio
The Diplomat. 23/01/2016
The Spanish Government called Venezuela’s Ambassador to Madrid, Mario Isea Bohórquez, yesterday, to complain about the last insults hurled by Nicolás Maduro to Mariano Rajoy and to ask for explanations about a trip to Paris, on a plane of the Venezuelan Air Force, made by two members of Podemos and the CUP, and a relative of an ETA member.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out that the ambassador was called to the Department, where he was received by the director general for Ibero-America, Pablo Gómez de Olea, who expressed his surprise and rejection of the declarations by the Venezuelan president, made on Wednesday, in which he describes the attitude of the acting head of the Spanish Executive as “interventionist, racist and colonialist”, because of the support given to the opposition in Venezuela.
Gómez Olea –the statement indicates- expressed that surprise, “especially when the Spanish press echoes the trip to Venezuela, in December 2014, of Spanish political representatives of the CUP, Podemos and relatives of imprisoned ETA members, on an official plane of Venezuela’s air force”.
«The trip’s objective was to participate in a seminar about the peace process in the Basque Country and the principle of self-determination of Spain’s towns, a principle that directly contradicts those enshrined in the Spanish Constitution», Foreign Affairs remembers, while adding that the director general asked the ambassador for explanations about this trip.
Besides, Gómez de Olea transmitted the Government’s concern about Venezuela’s economic situation and Spain’s commitment to contribute to palliate the humanitarian effects of that situation, showing the willingness of the Spanish authorities to coordinate humanitarian aid plans with the Venezuelan authorities within the EU, according to the statement.
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Foreign Affairs calls the Venezuelan ambassador to protest about new insults hurled by Maduro at Rajoy
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From Moncloa, the vice-president of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, described as “a very important interference in the affairs of the Spanish State” the fact that trips such as this are organized “just to tackle a peace plan in the Basque Country and the right of self-determination of Spain’s towns”.
According to Saénz de Santamaría, calling the Venezuelan ambassador is “really necessary” at the moment, because it helps the Government to reiterate, once more, the message about national sovereignty being a matter that is the responsibility of the Spanish people.
“What the Spanish people are, is decided by the Spanish people as a group”, the vice-president pointed out. She also stated that she does not consider as the most adequate “taking notes in Venezuela”, taking into account the situation this country is going through.
