The Diplomat
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has assured that the future ambassador to Spain, Coromoto Godoy, has already received the approval of the Government of Pedro Sánchez and will be in Madrid “very soon”.
During an interview granted to Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, broadcasted by state television, Maduro assured that Spain has already given “its approval to the Venezuelan diplomat” and, therefore, “we will have Coromoto Godoy as our new ambassador and she will be in Madrid very soon”.
Maduro’s declarations took place this past January 1, barely a week after the Council of Ministers appointed Ramón Santos Martínez as ambassador of Spain to Venezuela, a position that had remained vacant since November 2020, when Jesús Silva left office.
Santos had held the post of Chargé d’Affaires in Venezuela since November 2021, one year after Silva’s departure and replacing Juan Fernández-Trigo, current Secretary of State for Ibero-America and Spanish in the World. Spain had no ambassador, with that rank, in Caracas since November 2020, when it decided to downgrade its diplomatic representation in Venezuela to the level of Chargé d’Affaires with Cabinet Letters, a figure of a lower echelon with which it is shown that relations between the two countries are not fully satisfactory. Several European Union countries accredited in Caracas did the same to express disagreement with the way the Bolivarian regime organized the last presidential elections, held in 2018.
Venezuela’s representation in Spain has also remained at the level of Chargé d’Affaires throughout this time. In early December, the Government of Nicolás Maduro appointed Coromoto Godoy Calderón to this position in Madrid, replacing Mauricio Rodríguez Gelfenstein, who had been in charge of the Embassy since February 2018, following the departure of Ambassador Mario Isea.
In the same interview, Maduro assured that, “in general, step by step, with strategic patience, with diplomacy, with respect, we can move forward with the European Union” and that Caracas maintains “a permanent dialogue” with the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell. Likewise, the President affirmed that “Venezuela is prepared, totally prepared, to move towards a process of normalization of diplomatic, consular and political relations with this government of the United States and with the governments that may come”. Throughout 2022, there have been rapprochements between Venezuela and the United States, especially because of the energy needs of this country and the EU. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has defended the inclusion of Venezuela and Iran in the process of diversification of oil supply sources to curb the rise in prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After the appointment of Ramón Santos as Spanish Ambassador to Venezuela, diplomatic sources assured The Diplomat that “new circumstances” had been taken into account, such as the recent resumption of the dialogue in Mexico between the Government and the opposition, which had been stalled for more than a year; the decision of some members of the European Union (France and Portugal) to maintain their representation at ambassadorial level (“in the current scenario, Spain cannot see its possibilities of action diminished with respect to other European partners”, the sources specified) and Spain’s desire “to be able to influence, with an adequate level of representation, the opening of the Venezuelan political process”. On the other hand, Spain is one of the countries with the greatest interests in Venezuela (political, economic, energy or consular), “which requires a particularly appropriate level of interlocution at a time when important decisions are being taken”.
