Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday accused José María Basoa and Andrés Martínez Adasme, the two Spanish citizens arrested by Venezuelan authorities, of being “terrorists” without presenting evidence, and insisted on linking them to the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), a claim that the Spanish government has categorically denied.
The Bolivarian leader has taken advantage of the broadcast of his television program, With Maduro +to deepen diplomatic tensions between Caracas and Madrid and sow suspicions. He has claimed, once again without providing evidence, that the two detainees “are undercover agents” and has rejected the versions offered by the families, who had reported their disappearance a week ago and who, upon learning that they had been arrested, claimed that they entered Venezuela as tourists on August 17.
The Venezuelan government’s accusations come amid a crisis between the two countries that intensified shortly after the Venezuelan presidential elections on July 28. First, there was pressure on the Chavistas from most international bodies to force Maduro to show the electoral records if he wants to be recognized as the legitimate president. Then, the confrontation with the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, hardened, who published copies of those documents that support his victory. In this context, the Chavista leader entrenched himself and opted to launch an offensive against Spain once the veteran diplomat left Venezuela to go into exile in Madrid as a political refugee.
The statement by the Spanish Congress of Deputies, which called for the recognition of González Urrutia as the elected president, and statements by the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who referred to the Bolivarian government as a “dictatorship,” provoked an immediate reaction from the leadership of Chavismo. The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, Maduro’s right-hand man, proposed that the Executive expel large Spanish capitals from the country, an exhortation in the form of a threat that received no public response and that for the moment seems to have been put on hold.
However, the foreign minister, Yván Gil, called the Venezuelan ambassador in Madrid for consultations and last Friday he summoned the Spanish representative in Caracas, a common gesture in diplomatic crises. And then, on Saturday, Diosdado Cabello, one of the most hardline figures of Chavismo, announced the arrests of the two Spaniards near Puerto Ayacucho, in the south of the country, linked them to the intelligence services and implicated them in a crazy plot against the president.
Maduro had Cabello as a guest on his television show. The recently appointed Minister of Interior and Justice, the number two in charge of Chavismo due to his control of the membership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), was the person in charge of the police operation that led to the capture of Adasme and Basoa. He said that they were intercepted in an “irregular situation,” taking photographs near the local airport. And he broadened the focus of the accusations by pointing to the Joe Biden Administration and stating that Spanish intelligence “depends on the CIA.”
Cabello recalled that there are five people arrested in total, two American citizens, one Czech and the two Spaniards who were denounced. They, together with “mercenaries of French origin,” he added, are involved in a maneuver to “assassinate President Nicolás Maduro.” In his first appearance, Cabello himself limited the alleged operation to a plan against a mayor. The Venezuelan Minister of Justice also showed Maduro part of a large stock of pistols and machine guns that were allegedly seized. There are 400 weapons in total, according to the police. All were shown to the press.
The Spanish government has categorically denied “any suggestion” that it is involved in a plot to politically destabilize Venezuela and has demanded proof of its accusations from Venezuela. Sources from the Spanish Foreign Ministry say that they are in contact with the families of the two detainees. “Foreign Affairs continues to demand official and verified information from the Venezuelan authorities on the arrest of these two citizens, as well as clarification of the charges against them.” The Spanish Embassy in Caracas has reported, for its part, that it is in permanent contact with local authorities, “and has informed them that it will provide diplomatic and consular protection for its nationals.”
