The US asks Sanchez for explanations about Delcy Rodriguez visit to Spain

USPA NEWS - The US Embassy in Madrid has asked the Government of Spain for explanations about the scale that the Vice President of the Government of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, made at the Adolfo Suarez airport in the Spanish capital on the night of January 19-20. Rodríguez, number 2 of the Nicolás Maduro regime since June 2018, is one of the 25 Chavez leaders who are prohibited from entering the European Schengen area for their serious violations of Human Rights in Venezuela.

Her scale in Madrid has unleashed a political storm in Spain. During the time that his plane was at the airport of the Spanish capital, Delcy Rodríguez was visited by the Minister of Transport and number 2 of the Socialist Party, José Luis Ábalos, who - after being discovered by a digital newspaper - offered up to five different versions why he went to the plane of the Chavez leader. Finally, he admitted that he was on the aircraft for 25 minutes to greet the Venezuelan Vice President and warn him that he could not step on Spanish territory. This Monday, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that it was aware of the arrival of Delcy Rodríguez four hours before his plane landed, when the Venezuelan Embassy in Madrid informed the Protocol Department of the Spanish Foreign Ministry.

“The problem arises next, because the pilots of the plane in which the Vice President was coming had imperatively to rest for security reasons. For this reason, Delcy Rodríguez's team is in charge of managing an exit for the Venezuelan Vice President on the first flight available to leave Barajas and continue traveling to Turkey,“ said the Spanish Foreign Ministry in statements to the media. This government department confirmed that the Venezuelan Vice President got off the plane, arrived at the authorities pavilion of the airport's T1 terminal and later moved to the T4 terminal for international flights. The controversy, which could lead to a diplomatic incident with the European Union and the United States, arises when considering that the Venezuelan plane violated the Schengen airspace - of which Spain and Portugal are part - and Delcy Rodríguez stepped on Spanish territory.

The Spanish Government has closed ranks around its Minister of Transport. After the controversy, José Luis Ábalos has disappeared from the foreground and has canceled his agenda for the next few days, with the purpose of reducing his exposure to the media. So far, the European Union has not reacted to the incident, but US diplomacy, through the United States Embassy in Madrid, has asked the Spanish Government for explanations because what happened breaks European and North American unity in the face of the dictatorship of Venezuela.

From New York, the Venezuelan journalist Ibéyise Pacheco, citing diplomatic sources from her country, said that the visit to Spain by Delcy Rodríguez was organized by the Vice President of the Spanish Government, Pablo Iglesias, who would have promised she a three-way meeting with the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Iglesias denied this information on Wednesday, in line with the arguments made by the Spanish Government during the last days. Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the Popular Party, has requested video recordings of the scale of the Venezuelan plane, to confirm whether the Vice President of the regime of Nicolás Maduro, 50, stepped on Spanish territory.