Spain is in a war of words with Venezuela as relations between the two countries have almost reached breaking point after Caracas recalled its ambassador.
Venezuelan foreign minister Yván Gil summoned the Spanish ambassador to a meeting on Friday after ordering his country’s envoy to Spain to come home for “consultations.”
The new flare-up followed Spain’s defence minister Margarita Robles calling the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a “dictatorship” on Thursday and expressing her support for “the Venezuelans who had had to leave their country” because of his regime.
Gil called the comments “rude and insolent”.
Caracas was also angered by Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’ decision earlier in the day to meet Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who fled to Spain on Sunday and requested asylum.
The meeting came just hours after the head of Venezuela’s parliament called for ties with Madrid to be cut.
But Madrid tried to cool the rhetoric Friday by insisting that it was Venezuela’s right to exercise its “sovereign decision”.
“I have recalled ambassadors several times—a recall is the sovereign decision of each state,” insisted Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares.
“We are working to have the best relations possible with our fraternal cousins in Venezuela,” he told public radio.
Madrid has been at loggerheads with Caracas since a disputed presidential election there in July, with Spanish lawmakers voting to urge Sánchez’ government to recognise González Urrutia as the “legitimate winner” of the vote which Maduro claims he won despite international scepticism.
Sánchez published a video on X showing him walking in the gardens at his official residence with González Urrutia and the opposition figure’s daughter Carolina González, who lives in Spain.
“Spain continues to work in favour of democracy, dialogue and the fundamental rights of the brotherly people of Venezuela,” he posted, adding that he “warmly welcomed Edmundo González Urrutia to our country”.
Earlier this week, the Venezuelan government accused Spain of lying over the deal to grant asylum to the opposition leader. Albares had claimed there was not “any kind of political negotiation between Spain and Venezuela” and that “it is Edmundo González who has requested asylum.”
However, Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodríguez contradicted Albares by claiming there had been “extensive conversations and contacts” to guarantee González’s departure. “Falsehood is not a good advisor,” she said in reference to Albares’s claims.
Gonzalez went into hiding after the July 28 poll that the opposition insists he won, with Maduro ordering his arrest.
The United States announced new sanctions against 16 Venezuelan officials on Thursday, including some from the electoral authority, for impeding “a transparent electoral process” and not publishing “accurate” results.
Venezuela issued a statement shortly afterwards denouncing the sanctions as a “crime of aggression.”
The U.S. has recognised González as the winner of the election.
So far, however, Spain and other European Union nations have limited themselves to refusing to accept Maduro as the victor and calling on the Venezuelan government to release the voting tally sheets.
“From a political point of view, the Spanish government has been clear since the elections were organised,” Sánchez had said Wednesday.
“We are doing something very important: working for unity in the European Union so that we can find a way out that reflects the democratic will expressed at the ballot box by the Venezuelan people.”
