The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday stressed that Spain “will accompany” the process of dialogue between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition, following the request made in this regard by an opposition delegation with whom he met in Madrid.
“The opposition has asked me for Spain to be as close to the dialogue process as possible and, of course, I have answered in the affirmative,” the minister told Efe after the meeting.
Albares affirmed that no explicit mediation has been requested, but rather “support, accompaniment”, and added that there have been several ideas on the table about how to organise it in a more structured way, given that the dialogue, which began last August, is more advanced.
The meeting was held at the request of the Unitary Platform of the Venezuelan opposition, which chose Spain, a country it considers to be a major player, to begin a round of different European countries.
Albares indicated that at the meeting they exchanged points of view on the current state of the process and on how to continue making positive progress.
In this context, Albares conveyed what he had already indicated to both parties, that Spain “is at the disposal of Venezuela and the Venezuelan people for everything that can move this dialogue process forward”.
Spain was already working on this, remarked the minister, who has no plans at the moment to meet with the Venezuelan government, which could, however, take place at the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo in March.
On the possibility of Spain appointing a representative for this dialogue, he explained that the ambassador in Caracas, Ramón Santos, plays an important role, but that they are not thinking of appointing one person, but rather that the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with him at the head, is at the disposal of this dialogue between Venezuelans.
Luis Aquiles, Mariela Magallanes, Tomás Guanipa, Luis Emilio Rondón, Freddy Guevara and Roberto Enríquez participated in the meeting on behalf of the Venezuelan delegation, but the head of the opposition delegation for the negotiations with the Venezuelan government, Gerardo Blyde, did not attend.
