The ambassadors of the EU countries will not attend the inauguration in Caracas on the 10th of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, whose victory in the elections of July 28 they do not recognize. This was agreed at a meeting held at the end of December in Brussels by the Working Group for Latin America and the Caribbean of the European Council (Colac), according to community sources. Although the decisions of this body are not binding and each country can decide unilaterally what attitude to take, the sources consulted indicate that there was a general consensus on this position from which none of the Twenty-Seven has distanced itself.
The EU does not recognize Maduro’s victory as the regime has refused to disseminate the minutes of the electoral tables, as it was legally obliged to do, and in coherence with this position it will not be represented at his inauguration for a new six-year mandate. . However, it remains to be seen what practical consequences will arise from this position, since, with the exception of Italy, European countries have also not recognized the victory of the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, to whom the minutes released by the opposition and validated by the Carter Foundation attributed a broad victory. The Western bloc, led by the United States, recognized the president of the Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as “interim president” in 2019 and many countries froze the funds of the Venezuelan State in their banks, but now the European partners are not willing to repeat that operation, according to the sources consulted.
In the final communiqué of the European summit on December 19, the heads of state and government of the EU expressed their “concern about the situation in Venezuela”, demanded the release of political prisoners and committed to mobilizing “all instruments at your disposal to support democracy and a peaceful and inclusive transition” in the country. A dozen European countries have an ambassador in Caracas, including the Spanish Álvaro Albacete who has just joined the position, while the EU maintains a chargé d’affaires, the Spanish Antonia Calvo Puerta, at the head of its delegation, after the regime Chavista will expel the community ambassador in 2021.
The international presence in Maduro’s controversial inauguration is anticipated to be very limited. Russia has announced that it will send the president of the Duma, Viacheslav Volodin, while representatives from China and Türkiye, with whom Caracas maintains a good relationship, are expected to attend. Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, countries that tried to mediate between the Chavista regime and the opposition, will also be represented, but in principle only by their ambassadors.
The opposition is taking advantage of Maduro’s international isolation to enhance support for González Urrutia, who is being received as president-elect during his tour of Argentina, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Panama and the United States, where he plans to meet with the president, Joe Biden. , and visit the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS). In Panama, González will be supported by former Latin American leaders of the IDEA group (Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas), which includes the former heads of the Spanish Government Felipe González, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, who met with the Venezuelan politician after going into exile. in Spain last September. The former Spanish socialist president even showed himself “willing to accompany” González Urrutia on January 10, who has reiterated his intention to be in Venezuela on Friday to take office, despite the fact that the Maduro regime has offered a reward of 100,000 dollars to whoever facilitates his capture.
