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+ {"source_url": "https://panampost.com", "url": "https://panampost.com/editor/2020/02/07/venezuela-spain-we-had-a-deal/", "title": "We had a deal", "top_image": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/a11c843641351a50022fa3d999371bfe08e97ea1w.jpg", "meta_img": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/a11c843641351a50022fa3d999371bfe08e97ea1w.jpg", "images": ["https://d5nxst8fruw4z.cloudfront.net/atrk.gif?account=Tzpho1IW1810em", "https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=487056348332067&ev=GeneralEvent&noscript=1&cd[post_type]=post&cd[post_id]=101407&cd[content_name]=We+had+a+deal&cd[categories]=Columnists%2C+Europe%2C+International+Relations%2C+Opinion%2C+Politics%2C+Venezuela&cd[tags]", "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/a11c843641351a50022fa3d999371bfe08e97ea1w.jpg", "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/PanAm_Post_logo_mobile_O_globe-1.png", "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/english-logo-no-dot-map.png", "https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=487056348332067&ev=PageView&noscript=1"], "movies": [], "text": "By Jorge Gonz\u00e1lez-Gallarza\n\nDelcygate is far from over.\n\nIt was scandalous enough for Spain to let an EU-sanctioned narcocriminal land on its tarmacs\u2014not to mention secretly dispatching a top official to meet with her and then brazenly lying to keep under wraps the whole affair. But just as the dust seemed to settle from Jos\u00e9 Luis \u00c1balos\u2019 sequence of lies and cover-ups about his infamous meeting with Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, new evidence has arisen that may confirm fears of Maduro\u2019s friendly dealings with Spain\u2019s leftist government.\n\nThe truth, as some would have it, always finds its way out into the open.\n\nLeading Spanish daily ABC went to press Wednesday night with reports that Rodr\u00edguez spoke on the phone with PM Pedro S\u00e1nchez himself, as she lobbied her hosts in the early hours of January 20th to let her set foot at Barajas airport. This latest scoop comes from sources inside both Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s inner circle and Venezuela\u2019s opposition, which renders it far more credible than any of \u00c1balos\u2019 multiple versions of what happened, successively crafted in response to newly-surfaced evidence.\n\nThe PM\u2019s press bureau wasted no time in firmly denying the call took place but has supplied no evidence to contradict ABC\u2019s reporting. The press release looks every bit like any of \u00c1balos\u2019 multiple cover-ups. This time, the truth lurking beneath has every chance of undermining not one Minister, but the entire Spanish government.\n\nMake no mistake: the call in itself is a diplomatic and political outrage, even leaving aside its content. The PM\u2019s every contact with foreign leaders routinely undergoes a thorough vetting process handled by professional diplomats. Not when you\u2019re dealing with Maduro\u2019s criminal clique, apparently.\n\nPedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s likely next step will be to concede that the call happened\u2014phone records are hard to erase. But he will dig in to frame it as a last resort to dissuade a stubbornly insisting Rodr\u00edguez from leaving her plane\u2014she eventually did\u2014, claiming \u00c1balos reluctantly agreed to let her vent to his boss directly. ABC explicitly reports that the call was placed from \u00c1balos\u2019 phone.\n\nBut this time, the suspicion sowed by ABC\u2019s reporting of the call will make it a much harder cover-up for the government.\n\nFor Rodgr\u00edguez to feel empowered\u2014and allowed by \u00c1balos\u2014to attempt to coax the PM into letting her enter the country would be concerning enough. But the call, in fact, bore no relation to whether Spain would agree or not to breach EU sanctions and let Rodr\u00edguez in. She is instead thought to have raised three unrelated issues, of perhaps greater import for Maduro\u2019s regime, and raising greater concerns about Spain\u2019s tacit support of it. Namely: Juan Guaid\u00f3\u2019s planned visit to Spain two weeks later, the Spanish embassy\u2019s granting of refuge to opposition leader Leopoldo L\u00f3pez in Caracas, and oil giant Repsol\u2019s business in Venezuela.\n\nThere\u2019s reason for alarm on all three fronts. S\u00e1nchez was never scheduled to meet with Guaid\u00f3, but came under mounting pressure to change course in the weeks leading up to Delcygate. In shunning Venezuela\u2019s legitimate leader, whom Spain has nonetheless joined 59 other countries in recognizing, S\u00e1nchez was already seen as caving to Maduro\u2019s wishes. Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s pressure may have been decisive in keeping S\u00e1nchez in line. She is reported to have said: \u201cIf you host Guaid\u00f3, we won\u2019t be able to move forward\u201d.\n\nAs for Leopoldo L\u00f3pez, he found refuge not on the Spanish embassy\u2019s official premises but at the Ambassador\u2019s private residence after failing to ignite a military uprising along with Guaid\u00f3 in early May last year. Spain\u2019s diplomatic top brass was never happy with the Ambassador\u2019s move, but Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s demand that L\u00f3pez be ousted altogether tells just how subservient she expected Spain to be in assisting the regime\u2019s muzzling of the opposition. For Leopoldo to be denied refuge would instantly trigger his arrest back into military confinement.\n\nFinally, that Rodr\u00edguez brought up Repsol in the call shows how financial support matters more to Maduro\u2019s regime than outspoken signs of political support. Through its central bank, Spain has been serving as a clearinghouse for Maduro\u2019s blood-soaked profits, which has put it at perhaps graver risk of US sanctions than any other European country in post-WWII history.\n\nBut amidst dwindling oil revenues and an emaciated, largely underground economy, Maduro is in ever-direr need of hard currency to keep his crony government afloat and the military under his marching orders. Some speculate that it may be turning to Repsol, the Spanish oil and gas giant, which operates a number of plants refining Venezuelan crude across the country but has been sharply cutting its investments over the past few years.\n\nRodr\u00edguez may have sought to pressure Repsol to buy Venezuela\u2019s near-bankrupt state-owned oil company, PDVSA, which would supply the regime with a much-needed cash windfall. The she sought to enlist S\u00e1nchez to help push for the purchase shows her willful ignorance of the free market\u2014Repsol was privatized in the late 1990s\u2014but it also portents much of that same coziness that seems to reign between Spain\u2019s government and Maduro\u2019s cronies. An even worse scenario beckons, however: could the regime be threatening to expropriate parts of Repsol\u2019s operation in Venezuela?\n\nIn an earlier column last week, I conjectured that these dubious, secretive dealings may soon reveal the contours of a larger bargain between the two countries, where Maduro may be leveraging sensible details of his past links with Podemos, PSOE\u2019s left-wing coalition partner in government, to extract concessions from Pedro S\u00e1nchez. All of this is mere speculating, but not entirely off-base. In another snippet of the call released by ABC, Rodr\u00edguez is quoted as having warned S\u00e1nchez: \u201cwe had a deal\u201d.\n\nMike Pompeo is right to urge her Spanish counterpart to come clean on this whole issue. But Arancha Gonz\u00e1lez Laya is merely a technocrat with little links to PSOE\u2019s top political brass, who has sidelined her throughout Delcygate\u2014she was even sent to meet with Guaid\u00f3 in Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s stead. The Secretary of State would be better advised to deal directly with Maduro\u2019s associates in Spain while wielding the threat of heavy sanctions, if need be to the whole EU. He may find willing informants in Spain\u2019s law enforcement, who was also short-circuited in its tracks as it got ready to deport Rodr\u00edguez on arrival, per EU rules.\n\nA scandal of this sort should suffice to topple a supposedly pro-Guaid\u00f3 government, but Pedro S\u00e1nchez insists Delcygate is the stuff of conspiracy and fake news. Meanwhile, Spain\u2019s opposition is demanding \u00c1balos\u2019 resignation\u2014not likely\u2014and a secret congressional hearing under oath for the whole truth to emerge\u2014even less so. An MP from the Canary Islands has even surmised on national TV that Delcy\u2019s plane carried tons of gold to be melted for cash in Turkey.\n\nAt this point, it\u2019d be careless to rule anything out.\n\nJorge Gonz\u00e1lez-Gallarza is a writer based in Madrid, Spain.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["Guest Contributor", "Vanessa Vallejo"], "publish_date": "Fri Feb 7 00:00:00 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "A scandal of this sort should suffice to topple a supposedly pro-Guaid\u00f3 government, but Pedro S\u00e1nchez insists Delcygate is mere conspiracy", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/favicon-16x16.png", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "description": "A scandal of this sort should suffice to topple a supposedly pro-Guaid\u00f3 government, but Pedro S\u00e1nchez insists Delcygate is mere conspiracy", "og": {"locale": "en_US", "type": "article", "title": "We had a deal", "description": "A scandal of this sort should suffice to topple a supposedly pro-Guaid\u00f3 government, but Pedro S\u00e1nchez insists Delcygate is mere conspiracy", "url": "https://panampost.com/editor/2020/02/07/venezuela-spain-we-had-a-deal/", "site_name": "PanAm Post", "updated_time": "2020-02-07T09:36:18+00:00", "image": {"identifier": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/a11c843641351a50022fa3d999371bfe08e97ea1w.jpg", "secure_url": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/a11c843641351a50022fa3d999371bfe08e97ea1w.jpg", "width": 900, "height": 675, "alt": "Venezuela Spain"}}, "article": {"publisher": "http://facebook.com/PanAmPost", "section": "Opinion", "published_time": "2020-02-07T13:00:11+00:00", "modified_time": "2020-02-07T09:36:18+00:00"}, "fb": {"app_id": 272171646459645, "pages": 197511413705974}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "description": "A scandal of this sort should suffice to topple a supposedly pro-Guaid\u00f3 government, but Pedro S\u00e1nchez insists Delcygate is mere conspiracy", "title": "We had a deal", "site": "@PanAmPost", "image": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/a11c843641351a50022fa3d999371bfe08e97ea1w.jpg", "creator": "@PanAmPost"}, "generator": "Powered by WPBakery Page Builder - drag and drop page builder for WordPress.", "ia": {"markup_url": "https://panampost.com/editor/2020/02/07/venezuela-spain-we-had-a-deal/?ia_markup=1"}, "msapplication-TileImage": "https://panampost.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-apple-touch-icon-270x270.png", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListOrder": "Ascending"}, "canonical_link": "https://panampost.com/editor/2020/02/07/venezuela-spain-we-had-a-deal/"}