The Government of Spain has approved this Tuesday the appointment of Ramón Santos Martínez as the new Spanish ambassador to Venezuela, a position that was left vacant after the departure of Jesús Silva in 2020, when the Executive chose to downgrade the relationship to the level of chargé d’affaires as a sign of its disagreement with the situation in the country.
Thus, the Council of Ministers has promoted the current Chargé d’Affaires in Venezuela, a post he has held since November 2021, to the category of ambassador and will thus become the highest representative of Spain in that country.
Diplomatic sources have justified to Europa Press the step by the fact that 160,000 Spaniards reside in Venezuela and there are important interests to defend, and also by the will of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez to support the process of dialogue opened between Government and opposition. «Spain wants to be as useful as possible», the sources stressed.
Likewise, they have recalled that France has maintained its ambassador in Caracas at all times, while Portugal recently proceeded to appoint its own to replace its chargé d’affaires.
Santos Martínez, a graduate in Law, Political Science and Sociology, with a Master’s degree in Constitutional Law and Political Science, was previously Spanish ambassador to Panama (2015 – 2019), to Bolivia (2008 – 2012) and has been posted to the Spanish embassies in Washington, Brussels-EU and Quito.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he has held, among others, the positions of ambassador in Special Mission for Ibero-American Summits and Multilateral Affairs of Ibero-America, deputy director general of Andean Community Countries, deputy director general of MERCOSUR countries and Chile, deputy director general of Cooperation with Central American and Caribbean Countries, and head of Cabinet of the Secretary General of the AECID. Also, in December 2019, he was special envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bolivia.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, already advanced at the end of November in an interview that if the Venezuelan dialogue advanced «as we are beginning to see», the withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador in the country was a decision «perfectly susceptible to be reversed».
THE EU AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE SAME SITUATION However, there are still other countries such as Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland or the Netherlands that continue to have a chargé d’affaires in Caracas. Europa Press has contacted several of them and none of them has indicated that for now they will take the step of raising their representation.
The same happens with the EU Delegation in the Venezuelan capital. Caracas expelled the European ambassador, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, in February 2021 in response to the sanctions imposed by the EU-27 against some twenty Venezuelan deputies and officials.
Finally, in September of that year it appointed Rafael Dochao from Spain as chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, thus lowering the level of its representation, a decision that has been maintained to date.
Community sources consulted by Europa Press have pointed out that «any change regarding the level of diplomatic relations with Venezuela would be discussed with the member states in the context of the concrete steps towards democratization».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
