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Madrid (AFP) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó described the appointment of a Spanish ambassador in Caracas after two years of vacancy as “a favor” to President Nicolás Maduro, in an interview published Thursday in the newspaper El Mundo.
“The appointment of ambassador seems like a favor to Maduro,” estimated the 39-year-old politician in the Spanish newspaper.
The two-year vacancy in the post of ambassador “has not affected Spanish citizens, if it were so we would agree,” Guaidó explained, before sending a message to the president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez.
“President Sánchez can do much more in the demand for free elections and in the defense of human rights” in Venezuela, he said.
“I expect much more from Spain in terms of diplomatic pressure to achieve a free and fair election,” he concluded.
The Spanish government appointed Ramón Santos Martínez ambassador to Venezuela on Tuesday, who until then held the position of charge d’affaires.
Madrid did not recognize the legitimacy of the Maduro government since the legislative elections of December 2020, and joined fifty countries to support Guaidó as leader, who in 2019 proclaimed himself interim president invoking his status as leader of Parliament.
It was at the end of December 2020 when the Spanish government decided to terminate the work of its ambassador in Caracas at the time, Jesús Silva, without naming a successor.
The latter had been accused by the Maduro government of facilitating the exile to Spain of the Venezuelan political opponent Leopoldo López.
