The Senate rejects Albares’s proposal to request the lifting of European sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez

Eduardo González The Senate's Ibero-American Affairs Committee approved a motion from the Popular Group on Tuesday rejecting the Spanish government's decision to establish "as a priority before the European Union" the lifting of personal sanctions imposed on the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez. The motion, approved with 18 votes in favor, 11 against, and one abstention, states that "the Venezuelan community in Spain as a whole, and, with it, a large part of Spanish society, has recently been shocked to learn that the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has initiated efforts to request that the European Union (EU) lift the personal sanctions imposed on Venezuelan political leader Delcy Rodríguez for her participation in the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship and for her role in the political repression that occurred in the Caribbean country." On February 23, upon arriving at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Albares announced his intention to propose to his EU colleagues that same day the lifting of sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez. He even asserted that there was “agreement” on this matter from both his counterparts with whom he had spoken and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas. The reason for this request, he added, was the Amnesty Law enacted days earlier by Delcy Rodríguez. “Sanctions are never an end in themselves; they are a means, a means of pressure, if you will, to achieve an end, which is to move towards, for example, the release of political prisoners, as is the case with the amnesty,” he declared. European sanctions against Venezuela were first adopted in 2016 and entail, for those sanctioned, including then-Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, a ban on entry into the EU and the freezing of their assets and property in Europe. In the motion, the People's Party (PP) denounces that “the speed with which the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs has rushed to initiate the procedures to request the EU to lift the sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez contrasts sharply with the slowness with which, at the same time, the release of Venezuelan political prisoners is taking place, and specifically, those prisoners who hold dual Spanish nationality, such as Fernando Noya, who remains detained in Venezuelan prisons.” “It is advisable to support the process initiated in Venezuela if it leads to the definitive end of the dictatorship and the restoration of freedoms within a framework of democratic practice and respect for human rights, but before granting recognition, genuine certainties are needed, and the release of all Venezuelan political prisoners is a good indicator to measure the scope of the democratic reforms initiated in the country,” it continues. “With hundreds of Venezuelans deprived of their freedom for their political opinions and still imprisoned, some of them with Spanish citizenship, it is inexplicable that the Spanish government’s priority and urgency is precisely to process the lifting of personal sanctions against those who keep them unjustly imprisoned, such as Delcy Rodríguez, instead of urgently seeking their release,” the statement warns. Therefore, the motion approved by the Senate (where the People’s Party holds an absolute majority) rejects “the Spanish government’s decision to prioritize, before the European Union, the lifting of the personal sanctions imposed on political leader Delcy Rodríguez” and urges the government “to promote, both within the framework of the European Union and in bilateral relations, measures aimed at obtaining the immediate release of all political prisoners who remain detained in Venezuelan jails.” It also urges the Government of Spain "to support all efforts that will lead to Venezuela accelerating the transition to democracy from the institutions inherited from the dictatorship of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro." The debate During the debate, Senator Íñigo Fernández, of the PP (People's Party), stated that “for the Spanish government to prioritize, in relation to the current situation in Venezuela, the lifting of individual sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez by the European Union seems scandalous to us.” “In other words, the priority is not to urge the definitive implementation of a transition to democracy, nor is it to urge the opening of prisons and the release of those who shouldn't be there because they are imprisoned as political prisoners. Those are not the priorities: Albares's priority seems to be the lifting of sanctions against Delcy Rodríguez,” he asserted. “In our opinion, Delcy Rodríguez has not yet demonstrated anything,” he lamented. “We hope she will, we hope she will become a figure who leads, enables, or promotes a transition to democracy, but so far she has shown nothing. She comes from the most entrenched structure and the hard core of the dictatorship,” he added. For his part, Gabriel Colomé, of the PSOE, recalled that the Spanish Transition from Francoism to democracy, “which inspired the transitions in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile” and was led by Adolfo Suárez, who had gone “from Minister Secretary General of the Movement to Prime Minister,” was preceded by “symbolic but important gestures” from the democratic governments, which “were waiting to see what would happen” and which thereby helped “to pave the way for democracy.” In this sense, he noted, taking the “Spanish Transition model” as a reference, the withdrawal of “the European Union sanctions is a gesture.”

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