A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs raises the tension with Madrid and rules out that the departure of the leader was agreed
The Government of Nicolás Maduro has reacted this Sunday with accusations and irritation to the departure of the opposition leader Leopoldo López who had been sheltered in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas for a year and a half before fleeing abroad
In a statement signed by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza Caracas rejects what it considers the flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by the Government of Spain by facilitating with notable complicity the escape of the terrorist Leopoldo López
Chavismo resorts to the usual rhetoric of the foreign enemy and once again attacks the Spanish ambassador in Caracas Jesús Silva during this time The Executive believes that Spain encourages and protects the escape of a dangerous criminal
The text speaks of the antidiplomatic and hostile practice of the Spanish State towards Venezuela The day after Lópezs departure officials of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service the regimes political police detained Nubia Campos Lópezs cook at the embassy Spanish and José Neira who worked there as a guard and also raided their residences to subject them to interrogations
Almost at the same time as Arreazas statements the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the arrests of its embassy personnel by the Venezuelan police also accusing Caracas of violating the Vienna Convention The text adds Spain reiterates its conviction that the multidimensional crisis that Venezuela is going through requires a negotiated solution led by the Venezuelans themselves which allows the holding of legislative and presidential elections with full democratic guarantees
The crossing of accusations and claims between the Governments of Venezuela and Spain for the escape of López completely contradicts a widely spread rumor in Caracas considered true by most of the informed sources according to which his departure could have been agreed with Maduros government based on the offices of Spain in order to facilitate communication between the two countries and free Spain from that commitment in the city of Caracas itself
However moments after Leopoldo Lópezs departure from the country was announced opposition leader Juan Guaidó a militant like López from the Voluntad Popular party had declared on his Twitter account Maduro you dont control anything By mocking your repressive apparatus we managed to get our Commissioner for the Center of Government Leopoldo López to international territory His contribution for Venezuela continues from this new space of action
