Zapatero’s silence causes unrest among Maduro’s top brass

The enigmatic silence that keeps Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on the elections of Venezuela, held more than a month ago, on July 28, has not only generated controversy in Spain. According to what has been learned The Debate According to Venezuelan sources, the Nicolás Maduro regime is very upset with the former Spanish president, who they reproach for not having come out to support them this time, as he had done in all previous elections since 2015.

Zapatero, 64 years old, who was president of Spain between 2004 and 2011, has participated since 2015 as an observer in all the elections organized by the Venezuelan dictatorship. His work has always been a challenge support for the regimehelping him to whitewash his frauds at the polls. For example, in the 2018 electionswhen the bulk of the opposition boycotted the elections due to the lack of guarantees, Zapatero broke a lance in favour of Maduro and declared against all evidence: “I have no doubt that Venezuelans will vote freely.” He also stressed that “the Venezuelan electoral system offers all the basic guarantees.”

For years, Zapatero has presented himself as a mediator between the Maduro dictatorship and the democratic opposition. But he is despised and criticised by the opposition for his practical support for the dictator, whom he has visited repeatedly in the Miraflores presidential palace. He also maintains a close relationship with Vice President Delcy Rodriguezprotagonist of the controversial visit to Barajas where she was received by the Minister Abalosand with his brother Jorge Rodriguezboth important people in the regime.

This year, once again, Zapatero attended the July elections as a supposed observer, now on behalf of the Puebla Group which makes up the Ibero-American extreme left. On the eve of the elections, he posed smiling in a photo with three other observers: the former Dominican president Leonel Fernandezthe former Brazilian minister Celso Amorin and one of the founders of the Puebla Group, the Chilean Marco Enriquez. Since that image in the days before the elections, Zapatero has not been seen again, nor has he made a single statement, when in recent times he had become an omnipresent media presence in Spain and one of the most active and loquacious defenders of Pedro Sanchez.

Zapatero’s silence has been thunderous in the democratic world, because the Maduro’s electoral fraud of July 28 has been so crude that it has even led to his allies on the populist left, such as the Brazilian president Lula or the Colombian Petrohave demanded the publication of the electoral records. The leftist Chilean president Boric He has even gone further and repeatedly denounced electoral fraud and persecution of the opposition, with more than 2,000 people arrested.

But Zapatero has not only disconcerted and annoyed the defenders of democracy and fair play with his silence, he has also generated discomfort at the top of the Venezuelan dictatorship. According to this newspaper, after the elections he held a meeting with officials from the top of the regime, in which they asked him for some gesture or statement in support of the electoral rigging. It was not an unusual request, since they were asking him what he had already done in all the previous elections. But this time Zapatero refused, claiming to his interlocutors that he was not willing to compromise his democratic prestigeThe Venezuelan dictatorship has interpreted this silence as a gesture of ingratitude, a betrayal, and anger towards the Spanish politician is enormous.

Former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero | Europa Press

Zapatero has maintained a constant presence in Venezuela. In 2019, he himself acknowledged that since 2015 he had traveled to the country 37 times. In his first stage he used to stay in the luxurious facilities of the Country Clubnear the Spanish Embassy, ​​and lately he usually stays at the Meliá in Caracas, where the Venezuelan government reserves some luxury rooms for important guests.

The socialist leader has lobbied Brussels to oppose sanctions against the dictatorship and has been critical of the Venezuelan opposition. He was also against Juan Guaidó during his time as interim president.

Zapatero’s position as a whitewasher for the dictatorship has given rise to repeated speculation about what payment he received in return. Hugo Carvajalnicknamed the Chickena Chavista major general in his day and who became the head of the regime’s military intelligence, stated when he was detained in Madrid that Zapatero owned “a gold mine” in Venezuela“It seems surreal to me, totally crazy,” Zapatero replied when asked about it. However, he did not announce any legal action in defense of his honor. Pollo Carvajal is imprisoned in the United States for money laundering and drug trafficking. He also accused former Spanish socialist ministers of having received commissions in Venezuela in an irregular manner.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albareshas recently avoided calling the Venezuelan regime dictatorial and when asked about Zapatero’s role there, he limited himself to praising his work in the release of some political prisoners.