Today the United States formalizes an important step in its policy of pressure on Venezuela.
The Cartel of the Suns, a criminal structure linked to drug trafficking, will be officially declared a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. The American authorities link Nicolas Maduro and other senior officials of his government to the cartel leadership.
This designation is not a mere formality: allows you to toughen sanctions, freeze assets and prosecute your collaboratorsthus expanding the spectrum of actions that can be resorted to Donald Trump in their harassment of Maduro’s tyranny.
This is the zenith of several months of escalation in tension between the United States and Venezuela.
Washington has intensified its military deployment off the Venezuelan coast with exercises and operations aimed at dismantling drug trafficking networks linked to the regime, and has exploded several drug boats in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Maduro has accentuated his confrontational rhetoric and anti-imperialist rhetoric, repeatedly denouncing an alleged siege campaign to justify his occupation of power.
The pertinent pressure maneuvers on the illegitimate Maduro regime In no case should they give rise to a direct US military invasion of Venezuela.
Recent experience has shown that military interventions in complex scenarios such as the Venezuelan one tend to aggravate the crisis, increase the suffering of the civilian population and generate unpredictable effects in the long term.
International law must be respected, which means promoting political and diplomatic solutions that avoid an open armed conflict. The morally admissible and strategically sensible path is to increase diplomatic and economic pressure to weaken the regime and cut off their sources of financing.
It is essential to isolate Maduro politically and economically, firmly support the legitimate opposition within the country and facilitate Venezuelans who produce democratic change from within. Only a coordinated strategy that combines sanctions, a financial blockade and support for civil society will open a door to freedom and democratic transition.
In this context, It is unacceptable that the Government of Spain persists in its ambiguous attitude towards the Maduro regime.
This same Sunday, Pedro Sanchez He has defended that, although “we have not recognized the electoral result or President Maduro,” international law must be respected and “channels of dialogue” with the tyrant must be sought.
But his government still does not officially recognize Edmundo Gonzalez as president-elect, despite the fact that the opposition has presented the official records proving his electoral victory, and that the European Parliament has formally recognized him as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
On the other hand, no member of the Government has yet congratulated Maria Corina Machado after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sánchez’s Executive also played a significantly opaque diplomatic role in the forced departure of Edmundo González from Venezuela. And the tasks of mediation and whitening of the drug dictatorship carried out by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero They only add another layer to the political ambiguity of the Government of Spain.
The reality is that Venezuela today has an elected president in exile, the opposition leader in hiding, and a usurping despot in power. The position of the Spanish Government must adjust to this reality and abandon a double game that only helps perpetuate the dictatorship.
Spain, as a fundamental part of the European Union, has the responsibility to unequivocally support the defense of human rights and the recovery of the rule of law in Venezuela.