(Madrid) The head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, described the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as “dictatorial” in an interview broadcast in Spain on Sunday.
“In Venezuela, more than 2,000 people were arbitrarily detained after the elections. The opposition leader had to flee. Political parties are subject to a thousand restrictions in their activities,” Borrell said.
“What do you call all this? Of course, it is a dictatorial regime,” the European Union’s top diplomat told Spanish private television channel Telecinco.
“Let’s not get confused about the nature of things,” added Mr. Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister. “Venezuela called elections, but it was not a democracy before and it is much less so after.”
On Thursday, Venezuela recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations and summoned Spain’s envoy to Caracas for talks after Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles called Maduro’s administration a “dictatorship” and praised “the Venezuelans who had to leave their country” because of his rule.
Spain, like all other member states of the European Union, is demanding the full publication of the minutes issued by the polling stations following the presidential election, which the Venezuelan authorities have not done, saying they were victims of computer hacking.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner of the election, with 52% of the vote. But the opposition claims, based on the minutes provided by its scrutineers, that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia obtained more than 60% of the votes.
Spontaneous protests following the announcement of the election result left 27 dead and 192 injured in the country, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official sources.