The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, received ambassadors and charge d’affairs from several countries of the European Union (EU) at the Miraflores Palace yesterday.
“We discussed issues of common interest and opened channels of dialogue and understanding, within the framework of respect and self-determination of peoples,” the Venezuelan leader tweeted after meeting on Friday with the ambassadors of Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands , the United Kingdom and Sweden; and charge d’affairs from Poland and Romania.
The meeting was also attended by the Venezuelan Chancellor, Jorge Arreaza; the vice president, Delcy RodrĂguez and the minister for Communication and Information, Jorge RodrĂguez.
The diplomatic representatives of member countries of the European Union reaffirmed their support for the second term of Maduro, who on January 10 assumed the presidency after the victory in the elections of May 2018.
This event took place in the midst of tensions provoked by the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) of opposition majority, whose president, Juan GuaidĂł, declared Maduro’s new government “illegitimate” and promised to “create the conditions for a transitional government” and call for free elections.”
The US, some countries and regional blocs such as the so-called Lima Group and the Organization of American States (OAS) did not hesitate to express their support for GuaidĂł and proposed that the Presidency be transferred temporarily to the National Assembly until new elections are being called.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, for its part, has denounced that inducing “sedition” into a sector of the right wing political actors is, in reality, an attempted coup d’Ă©tat, plotted by the United States.
ahn / ktg / hnb / msf
Translated by JRE/AR
