The Diplomat
Joe Biden’s nominee for US ambassador to Madrid, Julissa Reynoso, who appeared before the US Senate this week, described Spain’s policy towards countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as “mediocre”.
Reynoso, who was nominated in July by the US president to take charge of the embassy in Spain, went through the process of appearing before the senators who must authorise her appointment, once the Spanish government has granted its approval. There he was confronted with numerous questions, most of which focused on Spain’s policy in Latin America, with very critical statements from both Democratic and Republican senators.
In particular, Democrat Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was “deeply concerned” that Spain “has taken views that are outside the democracy and human rights provisions we expect from a NATO ally”.
Menéndez added that he was similarly deeply concerned to see Spain’s actions regarding Cuba and its “unwillingness” to join the United States in a statement condemning the July crackdown on protesters inside the island. “It seems to me that the Spanish,” said the influential senator, “care more about their hotels and investments than they do about democracy and human rights. It worries me,” he added, “to see what role the Spanish are also playing in Venezuela, which is a cancer on the American continent. And I could go on talking about other places too, because the Spanish have not been close to us, and not only are they not close to us, but they seem to be our opponents in our own continent”.
Julissa Reynosso, who has experience in Latin America, generally agreed with the criticisms of Menéndez and the other senators, including Tim Kaine, who chaired the Spain-US Council, and who asked her to influence the Spanish government on issues related to that region.
The ambassadorial candidate said she was “quite familiar with Spain’s mediocre policy towards some of these countries, mainly Cuba and Venezuela, and Nicaragua, I might add”.
Reynoso said that her objective will be to work bilaterally with Spain, recalling that given the “important role” of our country in the EU with respect to Latin America and the Caribbean, she will urge the Spanish authorities to “be much clearer and more transparent and to maintain the same standard in terms of accountability with respect to human rights violations and the lack of freedom and transparency in Cuba and Venezuela as in other countries”. I believe,” he said, “that Spain can do much more”.
Sources from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs consulted by The Diplomat pointed out that they prefer to stick to the idea of working together, and recalled that the Minister, José Manuel Albares, met for an hour on Wednesday with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
The same sources confirmed that, in the conversation, they discussed Venezuela, among other issues, and that Blinken was interested in knowing Spain’s position, especially in relation to the negotiation process between the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition that is underway in Mexico. Albares indicated that Spain is in favour of talking to all parties and that it is supporting this process.
They also indicated that, with regard to Nicaragua, there is considerable agreement in repudiating the actions of Daniel Ortega’s regime, which Spain has already condemned on several occasions, and which led to the recall for consultations of our ambassador in Managua.
