Maduro accuses Spain without evidence of negotiating the departure of Leopoldo López

Nicolás Maduro, this Wednesday before a press conference.Miraflores Press / EFE

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro attacked the Spanish Government on Wednesday and made, without presenting evidence, accusations about an alleged negotiation between Madrid and Leopoldo López to facilitate their departure from the country.

Hugo Chávez's successor revolted against the ambassador in Caracas, who welcomed the opposition leader into his residence for a year and a half and was also convinced that his main adversary, Juan Guaidó, will also leave Venezuela.

The Bolivarian leader directly criticized Pedro Sánchez, who met with López on Tuesday, and took advantage of that circumstance to charge against the main bodies of the international community.

Maduro once again resorted to the rhetoric of the foreign enemy in order to justify the serious institutional, social and economic crisis the country is going through and to blame the anti-Chavez forces for the blockade.

“We do not have an opposition, we have a permanent conspiracy, endorsed and financed by the United States Government and with the complicity of several European governments.

Thus they disguise themselves as sheep, they are terrorists ”, maintained the Bolivarian leader.

That speech, common in appearances before international media like yesterday, has a very defined target these days: Spain.

The flight of López, who spent seven years deprived of liberty, first in a military prison, then under house arrest and finally at the residence of the Spanish ambassador to Venezuela, Jesús Silva, gave rise to a string of accusations.

The opposition leader, arrested in 2014 on charges of having incited violent protests, left at the end of last week and landed in Madrid on Sunday, where he lives with his family.

On Tuesday he met with Sánchez at the PSOE headquarters and held a press conference in which he promised to return to Venezuela to free her.

“Pedro Sánchez, you are quite uninformed about Venezuela, you always make mistakes with Venezuela.

Until when, Pedro Sánchez, your underestimation, your contempt for the Venezuelan reality, ”Maduro snapped, who went further.

He spoke of an alleged negotiation, from which he dissociated the Chavista regime, to organize the logistics of López's departure, of which the details have not yet transpired.

"Recently Ambassador Silva traveled to Spain, negotiated the trip of Leopoldo López to Spain with the Spanish Government. He returned to Venezuela and took Leopoldo López based on this negotiation with the Government of Spain. So far I can say today." maintained without presenting evidence or supporting or arguing his claims with information.

The Venezuelan government thus took another step in seeking a melee with Madrid.

On Sunday he had already assured that “the Kingdom of Spain actively participates in the illegal escape of a dangerous criminal and decides to receive him in its territory, without regard to international laws and even Spanish immigration laws and bilateral agreements on justice ”.

After knowing the departure of the opposition, the political police of the regime, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), detained local workers from the Embassy in charge of the security of diplomatic units and several collaborators of López.

The harassment has not subsided, but hours later they were released and yesterday morning the intelligence and police patrols withdrew from Silva's residence.

Maduro also affirmed that the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, will face the same fate and will end up living, he said, in the Salamanca neighborhood of the Spanish capital.

Even so, he threatened them with prison.

"He is defeated," he added about López.

"That is what I can say at this time, simply, I hope that one day there will be justice and the Venezuelan justice will again be able to take him to jail."