The European Union has not ruled out imposing new measures against the regime of Nicolás Maduro after the expulsion of its ambassador to Venezuela

The European Union (EU) has not ruled out the adoption of new measures against Venezuela, pending the consumption of the ultimatum that the regime of Nicolás Maduro gave Wednesday to the European ambassador in Caracas, Isabel Brilhante, so that she leaves the country, further, this Saturday. .

“The EU and its Member States reserve the right to consider any other appropriate measure”, said this Friday to the press agency EFE the spokesperson for the European External Action Service, Nabila Massrali.

Tensions between the EU and Venezuela escalated on Monday, when the supranational bloc approved a new sanctions against 19 senior regime officials, taking one more step to its rejection manifested so far against the elections of December 6 and the constitution of the new National Assembly, which Brussels does not recognize by considering that these elections did not respect democratic standards.

The list of those sanctioned includes the magistrates of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, the senior leaders of the National Electoral Council and the deputies of the National Assembly controlled by the dictatorship.

Until now, the EU had limited itself to publicly showing its condemnation of these elections and of the National Assembly and to calling for a dialogue between the Maduro regime and the opposition in order to hold new elections in which the anti-Chavez leaders.

Caracas’ reaction came on Wednesday, declaring Brilhante persona non grata and giving him 72 hours to leave the country, which ends this Saturday.

And Brussels reacted the next day by imitating the decision, Also declaring persona non grata the head of the Venezuelan mission to the EU, Claudia Salerno. However, this does not imply their expulsion from Community territory, as Salerno is also Venezuela’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg.

SUPPORT FROM THE UNITED STATES AND CONDEMNATION OF RUSSIA

The EU – which has asked the Maduro regime to reverse its decision – believes that the expulsion of the European ambassador to Caracas “will only lead to greater international isolation of Venezuela”.

This message received the support of the new administration of the United States, chaired by Joe Biden, which today issued a statement to the same effect, just to a time when Europe and the international community are waiting to see the position of Washington’s new government on Venezuela.

Quite the opposite of what the Russian government did, which today accused the Twenty-Seven of “constantly torpedoing” dialogue with Venezuela, thus opening a new front in the crisis that worsened between Brussels and the Kremlin after the trip to Moscow of the High Representative for EU Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.

After the trip, the EU decided to publish its new sanctions regime for human rights violations, in response to opposition condemnation Alexei Navalny, with measures that could be approved next week.

DIVISION

“Venezuela will only overcome its current crisis through negotiation and dialogue, to which the EU is fully committed, but this decision directly undermines it”Massrali declared after Caracas’s ultimatum to the European ambassador.

The crisis with Venezuela comes with the EU divided over the strategy to be followed to convince Maduro to call new elections.

The initial support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó failed and the Twenty-Seven now confine themselves to recognizing him as yet another actor among opponents of Chavismos, with whom it is necessary to dialogue, but without treating him as interim president.

By Dani Rovirosa (EFE)

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