The head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, described the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a “dictatorship” during an interview broadcast today in Spain.
“In Venezuela, more than 2,000 people were arbitrarily arrested after the elections. The opposition leader was forced to flee. “Political parties are subject to thousands of restrictions on their activities,” Borel stressed.
“Let’s not fool ourselves”
“How can I say all this? It is clear that it is a dictatorial regime,” the EU’s top diplomat told Spanish private television network Telecinco.
“Let us make no mistake about the nature of the situation,” he noted. “Venezuela called elections, but it was not a democracy before and it is much less so after.”
The international community on the elections in Venezuela
Part of the international community, led by the United States, does not recognize the results of the July 28 presidential elections in Venezuela, after which socialist President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner. Maduro, whose re-election was upheld by the Supreme Court, was declared the winner with 52% of the vote by the National Electoral Council (CNE). However, the electoral commission did not release the full and detailed minutes of the count, claiming that it was hacked. According to the figures of the opposition representatives, González Urrutia should have been declared the winner with “more than 60%” of the vote.
The Venezuelan government decided on Thursday to recall its ambassador to Spain for consultations hours after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met with Gonzalez Urrutia, for whom Madrid has granted political asylum.
Reacting to a statement by Spanish Foreign Minister Margarita Robles, who described President Nicolás Maduro’s government as a “dictatorship”, Venezuela “decided to recall the ambassador accredited to the Kingdom of Spain, Gladys Gutierrez, for consultations”.
Gonzalez, 75, who is wanted in Venezuela for conspiracy and other crimes, requested asylum in Spain on Sunday while Sanchez was in China.
In the protests that followed Maduro’s controversial re-election, 27 people were killed and 192 injured, while nearly 2,400 were arrested.
Sources: AMPE, AFP
