The Diplomat
The Venezuelan ambassador to Spain, Coromoto Godoy Calderón, has left Madrid, after being appointed by the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, as the new vice minister for Europe in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Coromoto Godoy, who replaces Franklin Ramírez Araque, arrived in Spain at the end of 2022 as Chargé d’Affaires and was later named ambassador. On May 17, 2017, that is nine months ago, she presented her Letters of Credence to the King, thus formally opening a new stage in Spanish-Venezuelan relations.
With the appointment of the ambassador, two years of disagreements ended, which began with the departure of the then Spanish ambassador in Caracas, Jesús Silva, in November 2020. At that time, the Spanish Government was upset by the numerous irregularities which he considered had occurred in the parliamentary elections held that year in Venezuela.
Instead of an ambassador, the Spanish Government sent a chargé d’affaires with Cabinet Letters to Caracas, a level below that of ambassador, a position held by Juan Fernández-Trigo. Venezuela also did not replace its ambassador and appointed, in turn, a chargé d’affaires.
In December 2022, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, considered that the resumption of talks between the Government and the Venezuelan opposition in Mexico represented “an objective improvement in the situation that should be supported,” and appointed as ambassador the diplomat Ramón Santos, who had replaced Fernández-Trigo months before as chargé d’affaires.
After that gesture, aimed at trying to recover the relationship with Venezuela, the Maduro regime sent Coromoto Godoy to Madrid, a person fully trusted by the Venezuelan president, and with thirty years of experience in the Foreign Ministry of the Ibero-American country. During that time, she held various relevant positions in the Foreign Service and was ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and India.
Until the appointment of a new ambassador is made, the counselor Mónica Saiz, remains at the head of the diplomatic representation of Venezuela as chargé d’affaires.
