Washington and Madrid discuss possibility of Spain giving exile to Chavez leaders who leave the regime

The US government has confirmed that it had had "talks" with the Spanish authorities about the possibility that Spain is hosting Venezuelan officials determined to defect and abandon Nicolás Maduro's regime.

At a press conference, the special envoy of the United States State Department for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, corroborated the existence of these "conversations", which had already revealed Tuesday the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, during an interview with the chain SER.

"We had conversations with Spainbut I would not say we made a request, and they gave an answer. We really had conversations, we had them with them (Spain) and with some other places, "said Abrams.

This version coincides with that proposed by Borrell, who explained that the approach had not yet been finalized and that if necessary, the Spanish government would study it.

The target of these conversations, explained the diplomat, is anticipate a scenario that "may occur", in which some officials decide to leave Maduro to facilitate a "transition" in recognition of the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, interim president of Venezuela.

"Maybe they prefer to go to Cuba or Russia, but there are other places, and that is why we will continue to have these conversations.he stressed.

Asked what two other nations They talked to Washington about it. Abrams did not give details, he just replied: "I will not answer because it has not been made public, as happened in the case of Spain," he said.

According to Borrell, he spoke with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, National Security Advisor to US President Donald Trump.

Abrams also recalled that when he was head of Latin America in the state department, between 1985 and 1989, he had already approached similar situations with Felipe González, then Spanish Prime Minister (1982-1996).

"It's an old debate, when he was US Under-Secretary of State and there were many military regimes, the question of what to do with the dictators appeared and it's actually Felipe González, At that time, he said that Spain could perhaps help by taking some of these people, "remembers Abrams.

(With EFE information)