The Senate of Spain asked the Government of Pedro Sánchez to abandon its “indifference” and its “equidistant and lukewarm” stance on Venezuela and get involved in leading international efforts to promote a democratic transition, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, according to a motion approved this Tuesday.
This motion, presented by the conservative Popular Party (PP), with a majority in the Upper House, was debated in the Ibero-American Affairs Commission, where the ‘popular’ accepted an amendment presented by the Basque nationalists (PNV) to adapt to the current scenario in Venezuela, which needs, says the text, “free and fair elections, with international support” and the release of all political prisoners.
With the absolute majority of the PP, another motion of the popular group was also carried forward that rejects the Government’s efforts for the European Union to lift the sanctions against the president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, who has the endorsement of Washington after capturing Maduro last January.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, Kaja Kallas, announced on February 23 that she will propose that the EU lift the sanctions against Rodríguez, as Spain had proposed.
The PP stressed that Delcy Rodríguez “has not shown anything” to deserve this favored treatment, although it hoped that “I hope she ends up being a figure that leads or promotes” a transition in the country, something that it does not believe is happening at the moment.
However, for the socialists in the Senate, lifting the sanctions is a symbolic “gesture” that they compared to those that occurred in Spain during the transition that, in their opinion, favored the arrival of democracy after Franco’s death.
Another of the initiatives that was approved this Tuesday in the Upper House was a motion from the Agrupación Herreña Independiente (party of El Hierro, Canary Islands) to promote a “special” humanitarian response to the serious situation that both Venezuela and Cuba are going through, “from the historical link of Spain and the Canary Islands” with both countries.
Likewise, the Senate also approved, at the proposal of the socialists, a motion in support of the Ibero-American summit in Madrid, which will be held in November of this year.
