Former President Aznar will meet with Edmundo González Urrutia

Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar is scheduled to meet next week with Edmundo González Urrutia, opposition candidate in the recent Venezuelan elections, as former presidents Felipe González and Mariano Rajoyand the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez.

The Venezuelan opposition leader has requested asylum in Spain, where he has been since last Sunday, and Aznar, who has been travelling recently, plans to meet with him next week, according to sources from his team.

Faes, the foundation chaired by the conservative Aznarregretted that González Urrutia was “forced” to ask for asylum in Spain due to the persecution of the Nicolás Maduro regime, understanding that the Chavista president was seeking the exile of the “president-elect” and he has achieved it.

Furthermore, this foundation accuses the Spanish government and former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of “complicity” with the Maduro regime.

Together with the socialist Felipe González and the conservative Mariano Rajoy, Aznar supported the complaint before the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of “generalized and systematic violations of human rights,” including “crimes against humanity,” by the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro, presented by the former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana.

Aznar calls for recognition of Edmundo González Urrutia

The foundation also called for Edmundo González Urrutia to be recognised as the legitimate president of Venezuela by Spain and the European Union, for sanctions against the regime’s leaders to be updated and for Spain to also promote the action of the International Criminal Court.

Diplomatic relations between Spain and Venezuela are currently tense after Maduro summoned the Spanish ambassador to Venezuela and called his representative in Madrid for consultations, after the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, described his regime as a “dictatorship.”

The Spanish government has not recognised the victory attributed to Nicolás Maduro and is calling on the authorities to publish the electoral records. It has also not recognised the victory claimed by the opposition, as requested by Congress, with the votes of the opposition and one of its government allies.

Following in the footsteps of the initiative presented by the Spanish conservative PP in Congress, the PPC – the party’s delegation in Catalonia (northeast of Spain) – announced this Saturday that it will register an initiative for the Catalan Parliament to recognize Edmundo González as the elected president of Venezuela and to condemn “the episodes of violence” experienced in the country.

In a statement, the spokesman for the PPC in the Catalan Parliament, Juan Fernández, said that the recognition of the Catalan chamber would not only be “a message of support to the more than 40,000 Venezuelans who live in Catalonia” but a message “of support for the freedom and democracy of the Venezuelan people against the tyranny” that they believe is practiced by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.