Venezuelan Parliament calls for a complete break with Spain

Caracas. The head of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, proposed yesterday to approve a resolution urging President Nicolás Maduro to break relations with Spain, following questions about the president’s re-election by the opposition, which claims fraud without presenting evidence.

Rodríguez called for the approval of a resolution that calls on the Venezuelan Executive to immediately break diplomatic, commercial and consular relations with Spain after its deputies voted on a proposal asking the leftist government of Pedro Sánchez to recognise the opposition Edmundo González Urrutia, now exiled in the European country, as the winner of the July elections.

Let all the representatives of the delegation of the government of the Kingdom of Spain leave here and we will bring our own people from there!Rodríguez cried out to the plenary.

Some 136,145 Spaniards live in Venezuela, according to official figures as of January 2023.

It is estimated that around 280,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, including several opposition leaders. The figure does not include those who have acquired Spanish nationality.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Congress of Deputies approved by 177 votes in favor and 164 against a bill in which González Urrutia is recognized President-elect and legitimate from Venezuela, reported Armando G. Tejeda, correspondent for The Day in Madrid.

The ruling party votes against

The ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party voted against, as did its left-wing allies, but they were unable to stop the majority of right-wing parties, led by the Popular Party (PP), which had the unexpected support of the Basque Nationalist Party, an ally of the government coalition.

After two days of debate, attended by a large delegation of the Venezuelan opposition living in Madrid, including Carolina, González’s daughter, the PP finally added to its cause the extreme right of Vox, the PNV, Coalición Canaria and Unión del Pueblo Navarro.

The Socialists, who had announced the day before that they would not vote, finally decided to vote against it, as did their parliamentary partners, including Sumar, EH-Bildu, Bloque Nacionalista Galego, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and Podemos. The resolution is symbolic, and the Executive is not obliged to abide by it.