The government’s maneuver Pedro Sanchez for the European Union (EU) to withdraw the sanctions imposed against the Bolivarian revolution has provoked the response of María Corina Machado, the new opposition leader after sweeping the primary elections last Sunday. “It is very difficult for them to get out of some clean and free elections, in which his own allies, called Lula (da Silva, president of Brazil), (Gustavo) Petro (president of Colombia), AMLO (Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico), Alberto Fernández (president of Argentina) or the The Spanish government itself is encouraging them to comply. The conclusion of the Bogotá Conference of the 20 countries present, including the regime’s allies, is that we must go to elections,” Machado said during an interview with CNN.
The initiative of José Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, contemplates that Brussels do not extend the sanctions for another year that prevent 55 members of the revolutionary elite from traveling to the EU, including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, generals, judges and several of the best-known torturers of the Chavista repressive system. Sanctions also include arms embargowith the aim of stopping internal repression.
The excuse used by Albares to take this step, which has fallen like a bomb among the opposition and civil society, is based on “the recent decisions of the United States and given the positive evolution of the dialogue between Venezuelans.”
“The rating of the government of Spain is striking as an ally of Maduro because it was one of the 12 countries that sent a diplomatic representative to a meeting with Machado in his campaign command on October 24,” stressed Mariano de Alba, senior advisor to the Crisis Group. In fact, the Spanish diplomat was the only one of those indicated that attended that appointmentin which only Panama, Peru and the Dominican Republic were part of Latin America.
“Although reports have emerged of a alleged opposition from Germany and the Netherlands to a Spanish plan to lift sanctions on Venezuela, there is agreement in Europe that given the US response and if the implementation of the Barbados Agreement advances, the EU will also act,” reveals De Alba.