Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday described as “unfair and uninformed” the criticisms from the United States of the Spanish government’s policy towards Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.
In early October, Joe Biden Administration’s candidate for US Ambassador to Madrid, Julissa Reynoso, declared before the US Senate that she was “quite familiar with Spain’s mediocre policy” towards countries such as “Cuba and Venezuela, and Nicaragua”. At the same session, Democrat Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed “deep concern” that Spain “has taken views that are outside the democracy and human rights provisions we expect from a NATO ally.”
“These are unfair and uninformed criticisms and do not respond to the good dialogue that I maintain with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, with whom I have spoken, of course, about Latin America and from whom, of course, I have not received these criticisms, but quite the opposite,” Albares declared during his participation in the informative event Forum Europe, organized by New Economy Forum. “I challenge anyone who wants to show a government that is doing more than Spain for human rights and democracy in Latin America”, he added.
In the case of Nicaragua, Albares assured, “Spain is the country in the world that has raised its voice most strongly” in favor of democracy and human rights, “not only with the withdrawal of the ambassador” but also with the dissemination of “very clear communiqués” on the lack of “minimum conditions for holding democratic elections” on November 7.
In addition, “in the Council of EU Foreign Ministers last week, and at Spain’s request, the issue of Nicaragua was discussed and measures were agreed upon that will be implemented once the lack of guarantees in the elections has been confirmed”, he continued. Likewise, he recalled, during a recent event with Sergio Ramírez at the Instituto Cervantes, he himself was “very clear in denouncing the falsehoods” spread by the Government of Daniel Ortega against the Nicaraguan writer, and “in the last communiqué condemning the detention of opponents and candidates promoted by Spain, the United States, Colombia, Chile and the High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, joined in”.
Regarding Venezuela, José Manuel Albares assured that Spain maintains a “very clear” position in favor of democracy and dialogue. “The rupture of the dialogue that had been opened between the government of Nicolás and the Maduro opposition (announced last week) is a disappointment”, but “if the parties enter into dialogue, Spain will be there”, added the minister, who also recalled that the opposition leader Leopoldo López was a refugee in the Spanish embassy in Caracas “with this government, not with another”, and that his entire family is currently in our country.
Regarding Cuba, Albares assured that “Spain is the only country in the world that has a political dialogue that specifically includes Human Rights” and recalled that, during his inauguration, his “first public statement as Minister was to ask for freedom of demonstration in Cuba and the release of detained journalists”.
The minister also regretted that Latin America is “reduced to three countries, as many do for internal consumption”. “For me, all Latin American countries are brothers and we are not going to give up building with them the Ibero-American Community of nations”, he concluded.
