The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, stated this Wednesday that the situation in Venezuela “has to be resolved by peaceful means” and that Spain is not going to “stoke any fire with respect to a sister Latin American country”, in the midst of tensions between Caracas and Washington.
“We have a constant position with Venezuela,” said Albares, insisting that the situation “has to be resolved by peaceful means, a democratic solution that is above all dialogued and genuinely Venezuelan. “You will never find Spain stoking any fire with respect to a sister Latin American country, whatever it may be,” declared Albares upon his arrival at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers being held today in Brussels.
He added that Spain “will always be on the side of dialogued, peaceful and democratic solutions.”
“What we want for the Venezuelan people, exactly the same as what we want for all the brother peoples of Latin America, is the same thing we want for the Spanish people: peace, democracy and social justice,” he said.
Albares indicated that he follows the situation in Venezuela “very closely” and that it is “one of the issues that takes up the most time right now in each of his days.”
«Just as I was landing, I was analyzing the information that was coming to me. “I do it day by day,” he said.
Asked if he believes that other NATO member states would support a United States military intervention in Venezuela, the head of Spanish diplomacy responded that the Latin American country “is not within the orbit of NATO or NATO’s actions, nor is it going to be discussed at this time.”
He insisted that everyone must aspire to find a democratic solution, dialogued and negotiated among Venezuelans.
«I speak about it both with the Government of Venezuela and with the opposition. I do it publicly, I do it from the first day I was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, that it is respectful of International Law and that it is peaceful,” he explained.
Albares indicated that Venezuela is “a brother nation” and that in the Latin American country “there is a huge colony of Spaniards,” while there is also “a large colony of Venezuelans in Spain.”
«The ties we have are fraternal ties. I insist, when I think of Venezuela, of the Venezuelan people, just as with the rest of the brother peoples of Latin America, I think of our brothers, and I want for them exactly the same thing that I want for the Spanish people,” he stressed.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, reiterated this Tuesday that his country is preparing land attacks in the midst of its military deployment in Caribbean waters near Venezuela, a presence that the Government of Venezuela has denounced as a threat against its sovereignty.
During a meeting at the White House, Trump insisted that “very soon” attacks against drug trafficking cartels within Venezuelan territory will begin, which would be part of Operation Southern Spear, which so far has destroyed around twenty vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, leaving, according to the US, more than 80 people murdered.
