The Diplomat
The “National Salvation Agreement” proposed this week by Juan Guaidó to Nicolás Maduro’s regime has generated great satisfaction in the Spanish Government, which considers that it goes in the “right direction” and aligns with Spain’s own proposals to overcome the crisis.
Last Tuesday, the leader of Voluntad Popular (the opposition formation led by Leopoldo López from Spain) declared in a statement that he would be willing to sit down to negotiate with Maduro as long as the regime offers “democratic guarantees” and a “timetable” for holding “free and fair presidential, parliamentary and regional elections”.
Likewise, the former deputy -recognized as “president in charge of Venezuela” by more than 50 countries, including Spain, between 2019 and 2020-, claims that the “National Salvation Agreement” arises “from a negotiation process between the legitimate democratic forces, the regime and the international powers” and asks for “the commitment of the international community to achieve the recovery of Venezuela and offer incentives to the regime, including the progressive lifting of sanctions, conditioned to the fulfillment of the fundamental objectives of the agreement”.
Spanish Foreign Ministry sources admitted that Guaidó’s proposal goes in “the right direction” because it “incorporates all the elements” put forward by the Government of Pedro Sánchez to overcome the Venezuelan crisis: “a negotiated solution with Venezuelan leadership and international accompaniment leading to democratic reinstitutionalization through the holding of democratic presidential, legislative and sub-state elections”.
Guaidó’s proposal has coincided with the decision of the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice to request Spain to extradite Leopoldo López – who clandestinely fled his country last October – to serve his sentence of “eight years, six months, 25 days and 12 hours” for the crimes of “public instigation and association”. In this regard, Juan Guaidó was convinced that the Government of Sánchez will not admit this “illegitimate” request that “in no way represents the Justice of our country”.
