<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, held a meeting this Thursday with the Vice-Chancellor of Venezuela, Rander Peña, whom he asked for explanations about the situation of the two Spaniards detained by the regime on the accusation of planning an attack against President Nicolás Maduro, according to sources from Foreign Ministry informed <em>The Diplomat</em>.</strong></h4> Specifically, according to the same sources, Albares asked Peña to allow the Spanish authorities access to the two detainees, to inform them of the charges against them and to grant them consular protection. Last Tuesday, Albares told the programme ‘Al Rojo Vivo’ on La Sexta, from New York, that he would try to meet with his Venezuelan counterpart, Yván Gil, to demand that he be informed of the identity of the two Spaniards “unjustly detained in Venezuela” and of the charges against them. The minister held this first meeting with the vice-chancellor coinciding with his participation in the breakfast with Ibero-American foreign ministers, organised by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), and in the informal meeting of EU-CELAC ministers. Both meetings were organised in New York on the margins of the High Level Week of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. On September 14, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello announced the arrest of Spanish citizens Andrés Martínez Adasme, 32, and José María Basoa Valdovinos, 35, whom he linked to a plot orchestrated by the opposition to assassinate Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan leaders. According to Cabello, the two detainees are linked to the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI), but the Spanish government has rejected this accusation and has assured that they do not belong to any public body. Their families lost track of them in Colombia on September 2 when they were heading to Puerto Ayacucho and filed a complaint for their disappearance with the Ertzaintza on September 9. A little over a week ago, Albares had a telephone interview with Yván Gil in which (as he explained to La Sexta) he demanded “direct and personal access to them to exercise all diplomatic and consular protection and for them to return to Spain, which is where they should be, with their families.” For his part, Gil assured him that the two Spaniards “were perfectly well and would remain so,” but the Spanish minister demanded the possibility of “verifying it personally” through the ambassador and the consul of Spain in Caracas. According to Albares, the Venezuelan foreign minister “agreed that, as soon as he had the information on where these two Spaniards were, he would transfer it” so that Spain could offer them diplomatic protection. “But that has not been fulfilled, and that is why my intention is to strongly convey this demand to him. International Law, the Vienna Conventions, bind everyone, including Venezuela,” he warned. Last Friday, Albares assured a group of journalists that the Government has still not provided any official confirmation on the identity of the two detainees or their whereabouts, despite having expressly requested it from Yván Gil during the aforementioned telephone conversation, in accordance with the Vienna Convention. <h5><strong>Declaration by thirty countries</strong></h5> Yesterday, Spain, along with thirty countries, signed a manifesto to maintain pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, urging him to engage in dialogue with the opposition after the elections held last July. The declaration was adopted at a meeting convened on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York at the request of the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Argentine Foreign Minister. The text was signed by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom and several Latin American countries, among which are not Brazil, Chile or Colombia, where left-wing parties govern. The statement calls on Venezuelan political leaders to begin a process of "constructive and inclusive debates" that will culminate in a "safe transition" with the aim of ending the situation of political instability in the country. "The regime may try to hide the results, but the Venezuelan people have spoken," said Blinken, who added: "Now, our job is to ensure that their voices are heard." Blinken urged Maduro "to engage in direct dialogue with Venezuela's united democratic opposition that leads to a peaceful return to democracy," as well as to immediately release those detained after the elections. "We stand with the millions of Venezuelans who continue to risk their lives and well-being to demand a more democratic, prosperous and secure future for themselves and their country," the statement said. <div class="lRu31" dir="ltr"> <h5><strong>Metsola: “The European Parliament is inflexible with Venezuela”</strong></h5> For her part, the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, assured this Thursday, during the closing of the FAES Campus in Madrid, that the European Parliament has been “very clear” regarding Venezuela and that, “when it comes to free and fair elections, defending the rights of citizens and defending our freedom and our democratic values, the European Parliament will continue to be inflexible.” “Europe must do much more. Europe needs to do much, much more in this and make more approaches to Latin America,” declared Metsola in the presence of the Venezuelan opposition candidate, Edmundo González. Before the event, Metsola, the leader of the PP, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, and the former president José María Aznar held a brief meeting with González Urrutia, to whom they have conveyed their support as president-elect after the elections of last July 28, according to what 'popular' sources have indicated to Europa Press. A week ago, the European Parliament recognised Edmundo González as the “legitimate president” of Venezuela, with the Social Democrats voting against, just one week after the Congress of Deputies did the same, at the proposal of the PP and also with the Socialist Group voting against. </div> <div class="lRu31" dir="ltr"> <div class="OvtS8d"></div> <div id="ow45"></div> </div> <div class="UdTY9 WdefRb" aria-hidden="true" data-location="2"></div>
