Five years and one month ago, the foreign ministers of the European Union approved a package of sanctions that punished 11 high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan regime, including Vice Presidents Delcy Rodríguez and Tareck El Aissami, for “violating human rights and undermining the democracy and the rule of law”. The measures included a ban on travel to Community territory and the freezing of assets. Nicolás Maduro’s collaborators appealed the decision before the Court of Justice of the EU, which in 2021, after “proceeding to a detailed examination of the specific situation”, proceeded to dismiss it. This Monday, however, Delcy Rodríguez set foot in Brussels. Not on a stopover and without leaving the airport, as in the controversial trip with a meeting with José Luis Ábalos, but on an official trip, representing her country and as a guest at the headquarters of the European institutions.
Rodríguez came to the EU-Celac summit since Maduro was not invited. The image of his formal greeting to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, was powerful in itself. But next to him was also Pedro Sánchez, an informal host, who, after offering him his hand, decided to go one step further and give him two kisses.
The presence of the Chavista leader is more than controversial and serves to contextualize a strange summit, which has nothing to do with almost any other community event. She was able to be there in a diplomatic capacity, just as the Union looked the other way a few years ago when Robert Mugabe also wanted to travel as acting president of the African Union. The situation, more than contradictions, reflects the complexities of current geopolitics and the need to prevent Moscow and Beijing from deploying their networks, their ideology, their influence for the so-called Global South. It’s uncomfortable, it’s a problem, but there are few alternatives. Latin America was not and is not a priority for Europe, but times have changed and various capitals are crying out for totally different lines of action.
The initial day of this summit, the first in eight years, was not marked by anything in particular. Everyone in Brussels is talking this week about improving relations, about opportunities, about how much it unites us. The Brazilian Lula de Silva met with the president of the Commission and she promised to mobilize up to 45,000 million euros to finance projects in the region using the Global Gateway, the tool designed to combat the influence of the Chinese New Silk Road. But the day, in itself, did not have a dominant element, since the joint declaration is reserved for tomorrow.
These types of events are chaotic, with dozens or hundreds of parallel meetings, bilateral meetings, an alternative People’s Summit to highlight all the differences between blocks. And a gala summit that the Spanish president decided to skip to attend an electoral rally in Huesca. Sánchez assured that “all the leaders understand” the exceptional circumstances with the vote on Sunday, but after a long year highlighting the enormous importance of the appointment, his departure leaves the Spanish commitment somewhat tarnished.
The interest of the international press, notably less than any European Council, was dispersed among all the alternative calls. But the message that remains, the spirit that stands out, is that despite the good words, the promises of investment and stronger ties, the positions between the two blocks are much further than desired. Europe has spent a year and a half focused on Ukraine, trying to isolate Russia, trying to ensure energy and mineral alternatives. And his American friends don’t buy the music or the lyrics, at least some of the bigger partners.
The former anti-Chavista deputy Julio Borges criticized this Monday that the European Union (EU) allowed the entry of the executive vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, to Brussels.
“It is not understood how Delcy Rodríguez is allowed to enter the European Union being a sanctioned person and knowing that his last attempt in Spain was a legal and political scandal,” said the former parliamentarian, quoted in a press release.
The also former president of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament) assured that this “type of concessions to the dictatorship” -in reference to the Government of Nicolás Maduro- have been “taken advantage of by the regime to legitimize itself and not to allow democratic openings, as it wants the international community”.
“The worst that can happen in the case of Venezuela is that the democratic countries of the world do not press for competitive elections at this time,” he said.
In addition, he pointed out that the vice president’s trip “comes days after her brother”, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Legislature, “lashed out at Europe”, saying that the EU “does not enter the elections” in the Caribbean country.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández proposed forging a balanced relationship to build an economic axis that “does not submit to the new bipolarity” between the United States and China. “Dividing the world into antagonistic blocs would be crazy,” added Lula, who harshly criticized the community’s foreign policy. “Using sanctions and blockades without the support of international law is something that only serves to penalize the most vulnerable parts of the population. We need peace to overcome the great challenges we have to face and that implies profound systemic changes,” he said. in a statement that is valid for those punished by Venezuela or Nicaragua, but also for Russia.
“Instead of eliminating hunger for so many millions of human beings, we are spending billions of dollars to feed the war machine, which only causes war, destruction and more famines. This summit between the European Union and Celac is the time to Say enough. Another world is possible, which is the one we all have to build together,” he said with his usual equidistance and wriggling while his diplomats negotiate to exclude any mention of the aggression against Ukraine from the final statement.
“We cannot live with the nightmare that hell could unleash on all of us any day. Trillions of dollars in weapons are sent for the war but we are not capable of building the integral development of humanity,” added Honduran President Xiomara. Castro, demanding the “end of the blockade against Cuba” and “an end to piracy and the confiscation of assets, because we are all exposed to one day finding that our reserves have been frozen in foreign banks,” he said in reference to ” all the patrimony illegally withheld from the Venezuelan people” by the 27.
There will almost certainly be an agreed text, money will move, perhaps a permanent structure will be established. But it is clear that both sides of the Atlantic do not see things the same, and that with appointments every eight years it is impossible to improve much. Europe has ignored the region for a long time, and although it has no particular interest today, it is beginning to realize that waiting can be fatal. There is always someone willing to fill the void and the new powers have shown that they know how to move and how to awaken the historical grudges of the region.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
