The former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has acknowledged that he “facilitated” the departure of Edmundo González from Venezuela, but he has avoided speaking out about Nicolás’s drug dictatorship Ripe to “maintain trust.”
«You can understand that I know everything that has happened and you can understand that I owe it to the people who have participated. And also because the future may determine, it may require you to perform some other task in the difficult situation what has Venezuela», he stated this Tuesday in statements to the media before presenting his book Democracy and its rights at the Athenaeum of Madrid.
These were his first statements in several months, after the Venezuelan electoral fraud this summer, which he attended in situ and which, according to the opposition, gave the winner to Edmundo González Urrutianow a refugee in Spain.
Thus, Zapatero has avoided commenting on the electoral result and whether the Spanish Government should recognize Edmundo González as president, as the Congress of Deputies has done.
Likewise, Zapatero has refused to take a position on whether Ripe has not presented the minutes of the elections, in which, according to the opposition, the victory of Edmundo González is demonstrated. «I am not going to make evaluations because I must preserve that trust. The only way to preserve trust is to maintain that attitude of discretion, prudence and serenity,” he points out.
Cries of “traitor!” and “coward!”
On the other hand, dozens of Venezuelan opponents gathered this Tuesday to insult the former president of the Government, after the fraud of Nicolás Maduro in the Venezuelan elections on July 28. The protesters have charged against the socialist with cries of “traitor!», «coward!“, and “sold!», among others, in front of the doors of the Ateneo de Madrid.
“Today for Venezuela, tomorrow for Spain” was another of the proclamations that the protesters sang. Zapatero has positioned himself as one of the main supporters of the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro. The socialist attended the elections as an observer, along with other left-wing leaders from Latin American countries, invited by the regime.
Likewise, the former president defended his actions before journalists during and after the elections, after which he did not acknowledge at any time the electoral fraud committed by the dictator. chavista. «That is what facilitators do, maintain trust because it is a duty of loyalty, I owe it to the people who have participated. And also because in the future I may have to do a task in Venezuela. I will always try to make that the attitude for that country,” Zapatero explained.
Demonstrators protesting against Zapatero in Madrid. pic.twitter.com/gPXBA0X4eq
— 🇻🇪 nu (@novagelic) September 24, 2024
