Guaidó in Madrid: The Issue of Venezuelan Political Identity in Spain
Image Source: https://www.madridiario.es/juan-guaido-recibe-llaves-oro-madrid-mano-almeida-villacis
By: Valeria Sinisi García
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the KCL Latin American Society or El Cortao.
Juan Guaidó, acting President of Venezuela, arrived in the Spanish capital the past 25th of January for one of the many stops in his European tour. The intent of the visit was to further his European political agenda which seeks to increase and secure support for his leadership as the opposition government in the South-American nation. Previously, Guaidó has also met with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as with the French President Emmanuel Macron, which signalled a prosperous start to his campaign. However, he encountered a surprising situation when he arrived in Spain, as Pedro Sanchez, the current Prime Minister and president of the socialist party PSOE in Spain, did not receive the self-proclaimed Venezuelan President.
This was an unexpected action. Just over a year ago, the Spanish leader was one of the firsts to express support for his presidency. Still, a formal invitation to Moncloa, the official residence of the Spanish Prime Minister, was not conveyed. A meeting with the newly appointed Foreign Minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, was instead arranged on non-governmental premises for the two parties to converse. While in Brussels, Guaidó stated that his country has “the best relations with Spain” and that he and his administration hope to develop these relations to form strong ties which can lead to future collaboration, not only with Spain but also with the rest of Europe.
Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez has been the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela since the 5th of January 2019 and the 23rd of the same month he was appointed acting President of the republic, after the presidential crisis which resulted in the Organisation of American States (OAS) declaring Maduro’s presidency illegitimate. Since then, Nicolás Maduro and his government have accused Guaidó of organising a coup to take control of Venezuela, backed by the United States. However, Guaidó has continued to state that his movement and rule are supported by peaceful volunteers. Once a member and co-founder of the social-democratic party Popular Will, Guaidó has since declared himself independent last month. Nonetheless, he is still considered a centrist by his peers and most of the international community.
As already stated, Pedro Sanchez last year announced his support for Guaidó’s government in response to his self-proclamation. However, the decision to not meet with him during his tour of Europe has created doubts about where the Prime Minister stands with regards to Venezuelan political identity. Some have speculated that his reluctance to have a formal meeting at Moncloa with Guaidó is rooted in Sanchez’s coalition government with the far-left party Unidas Podemos, whose president is Pablo Iglesias. Iglesias has also been recently appointed as one of the Deputy Prime Ministers to Sanchez, thus placing him in one of the most important positions within the Spanish government.
Iglesias and his party do not recognise Guaidó as the legitimate President of Venezuela, rather they see him as a coupist and have expressed their support for Maduro’s leadership. This raises questions on the strategic coherence of the new Spanish government and how the two politicians, Sanchez and Iglesias, intend to continue their collaboration regarding other foreign affairs with these sort of contrasting views. In fact, further consternation arises from a meeting between Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice-president, and Jose Luis Abalos, a top minister in Sanchez’s administration, just a few days before Juan Guaidó was to arrive in Madrid. Abalos stated that there was no hidden purpose to the meeting and that he reminded Rodriguez that according to EU sanctions she was not allowed to enter Spanish territory.
Spanish opposition parties heavily criticised this reunion between a representative of Maduro’s rule and a high-ranking member of Sanchez’s government. A member of the centre Ciudadanos party conveyed his perplexity through this tweet: “Did Abalos meet with the vice-president of the Maduro totalitarian regime? With someone banned from entering the European Union as a high-ranking official of that tyranny?” Instead, Pablo Casado, the president of the centre-right Partido Popular, stated that “If this is confirmed, Abalos cannot continue to lead the ministry for even one more day.”
Other Spanish political figures also commented on the recent events regarding the socialist party’s stance in Venezuelan politics. José María Aznar Lopez, former Prime Minister of Spain, expressed his disapproval on Facebook of Sanchez’s refusal to see Guaidó in Moncloa. He set forth the view that this was a demonstration of his support for Maduro’s ‘dictatorship’. Also, Inés Arrimadas, the current spokesperson of Ciudadanos, wrote on an Instagram post, below several photographs depicting a discussion with Guaidó, that she had met with the interim President of Venezuela, referring to him as the legitimate president of the South-American nation, and hoping for an end to Maduro’s tyranny through a fight for human rights, democracy, and freedom.
Valeria Sinisi García is a Spanish and Italian student, in her second year of a BA in International Relations. Her main research interest involves climate change and its effects on international security. However, she also enjoys reading on issues regarding feminism and current affairs.