The former President of the Government Felipe González has demanded this Monday that a "clear" electoral calendar be set in Venezuela and that the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, be allowed to return with full guarantees. His words have included harsh criticism of the interim authorities in Caracas, whom he has reproached for still not facing a true democratic transition.
"It is too late to define an electoral timetable," the former socialist leader has reiterated during his speech at the Fórum Europa press breakfast, held in Madrid. There he stressed that Venezuela needs a "clear" political horizon and to know "where it is going," while also demanding that "so much organized criminality" disappear.
In relation to the current Venezuelan interim authorities, González has criticized that they speak of a "new time" without promoting an effective democratic transition. He has also regretted that the proposed amnesty excludes the military and is configured as a "partial pardon." For this reason, he has defended a "true" amnesty, that is not reviewed by "illegitimate bodies," that is "for everyone," and that only leaves out crimes "against humanity and narco-terrorism."
In this regard, he has denounced that the only violence being combated in the country is that exercised by a "dictatorial regime," alluding to the 'Chavista' system that remains in place after Delcy Rodríguez's arrival to interim Presidency, following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a United States military operation on January 3rd.
"I wish for María Colina to return with absolute security guarantees. That is my wish, and with her, for the exiles not included in the amnesty to return," demanded Felipe González, who stressed that "the steps are clear" for the future and that Machado "now has to face those steps with the interlocutors," in reference to the United States.
Before Machado, the former Spanish president praised her leadership, remarking that she "is not a mercenary" and also mentioning other opposition figures such as Edmundo González, a presidential candidate after Machado's disqualification from running in the elections.
"María Corina, you deserve the Nobel Prize for your fight for freedom and you deserve it more because you have never fought in a mercenary way for your own benefit. You have sacrificed everything, family, security, your well-being, your freedom. There are few, few cases where that is also so clear and so relevant," he/she/they have pointed out.
Likewise, he has remarked that the defense of freedom "is not the patrimony of an ideology" and rests on the "deep conviction" in the "values of democracy".
González has been in charge of introducing Machado at this event, which has been attended by the leadership of the Popular Party, headed by its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The meeting was also attended by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, as well as other political figures such as Iván Espinosa de los Monteros or Javier Ortega Smith, former leaders of Vox.