The Diplomat
The Government of Spain yesterday welcomed the resumption of the negotiation process in Mexico between the Government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition, which had been stalled for more than a year.
“The Venezuelan government and opposition have taken today (yesterday) a very important step in the reconciliation of the country by resuming negotiations in Mexico,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The Government of Spain welcomes the fact that the parties have returned to the negotiating table and reiterates its support for inter-Venezuelan dialogue,” it continued. “Spain will continue working to strengthen the dialogue in this new stage, putting its capacity for dialogue at the service of the parties and contributing to create the necessary conditions for the negotiations to be successful,” it concluded.
For his part, the State Secretary for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, held a meeting yesterday with a group of political leaders of the Venezuelan opposition organizations Acción Democrática, Primero Justicia and Partido Un Nuevo Tiempo. “The Government of Spain supports the resumption of negotiations and expresses its full willingness to accompany the process,” he stated through his Twitter account.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met last November 11 in Paris with the chief negotiators of the Government and the opposition in Venezuela, hours before they held a meeting sponsored by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to try to revive the dialogue process.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Albares took advantage of his stay at the Paris Peace Forum to meet at the Spanish Embassy -first separately, and then with both at the same time- with Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Chavista National Assembly and chief negotiator of the regime of Nicolás Maduro, and with Gerardo Blyde, chief negotiator of the Unitary Platform, which brings together the four main opposition parties. Albares explained to his interlocutors, according to the note of his Department that “the Government of Spain supports the resumption of negotiations and expresses its full willingness to accompany the process”.
Albares has been defending at all times the need for a dialogue-based solution to the political crisis that Venezuela is going through, leading to the holding of free and democratic elections. To this end, he has maintained contacts in the past with opposition leaders, as well as his Venezuelan counterparts. Thus, in September, he had the opportunity to meet in New York with the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Carlos Faría.
The Spanish government has not recognized the elections in which Maduro was re-elected in 2018 and initially recognized Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly elected in 2015, as president in charge of Venezuela after he proclaimed himself as such in January 2020. However, in recent times this recognition has remained a dead letter, with Guaidó relegated to the role of interlocutor within the opposition.
