Delcy Rodríguez chooses Timoteo Zambrano, a moderate opponent of Chavismo, as Venezuela’s new ambassador to Spain

Eduardo González The government of interim president Delcy Rodríguez has chosen Congressman Timoteo Zambrano to be Venezuela's new ambassador to Spain, according to reports in several Spanish media outlets. According to the newspaper El País, Zambrano will replace the current ambassador, Gladys Gutiérrez Alvarado. The newspaper states that the appointment of this congressman, a moderate opponent of the regime, reveals the Rodríguez government's intention to send to Madrid (for the first time in more than twenty years) someone outside of Chavismo but, at the same time, not overly critical of the regime. Timoteo Zambrano, 71, has been linked for years to the more moderate and conciliatory opposition to Chavismo. Between 2002 and 2004, he was one of the most prominent leaders of the anti-Chavista alliance, the Democratic Coordinator, and, after several political shifts, in 2010 he was one of the founders of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), another anti-Chavista platform. These activities, along with his moderate and conciliatory nature, led him to participate in several political negotiation processes with the regime and to maintain a very close relationship with former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. This profile of an opposition figure, but not an outright one, seems to fit very well with the current transition process underway in Venezuela, overseen by US President Donald Trump, since the military assault on Caracas on January 3rd that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. Under these circumstances, Delcy Rodríguez would have opted to assign someone outside of Chavismo, but sufficiently open to dialogue to avoid breaking with the regime, to such a strategic post as Madrid. According to sources, the proposal has already been notified to the Spanish Government, which could approve it at the Council of Ministers meeting on May 5.

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