Spain urges EU to lift sanctions on Venezuela’s acting president

Spain will push the European Union to remove sanctions on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, following Caracas’ approval of a limited political amnesty, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced.

Ahead of a Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Albares said Madrid’s proposal – though not formally on the FAC agenda – will be presented to EU counterparts on February 23 and, if approved, would signal that Venezuela is “heading in the right direction,” Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

Albares described sanctions as a tool rather than an end in themselves, stating that lifting them would support broader, peaceful, and democratic dialogue in Caracas. He has repeatedly called for sanctions on Rodríguez to be removed “to enable dialogue” with the country’s new leadership after the US capture of former President Maduro in January.

“Sanctions are never an end in themselves,” Albares said, adding that they are a means to an end, “which is to move towards, for example, the release of political prisoners.”

The Spanish minister said Caracas’ approval last week of a political amnesty law – set to pardon hundreds of prisoners jailed under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro – signals the Caribbean country is entering “a new phase.”

Albares noted that he had spoken with EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and several European counterparts, observing that a consensus appears to be forming in favour of Spain’s position, though he did not specify which capitals support it.

On February 20, the European Commission reportedly declined to confirm or reject lifting sanctions on Rodríguez, stating that “individual or economic measures are not an end in themselves,” while emphasising that those sanctioned are “directly responsible for undermining democracy, the rule of law and human rights.”

The EU first imposed sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, including an arms embargo, travel bans, and asset freezes on 69 individuals and entities accused of human rights violations and weakening the rule of law, including Rodríguez and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

Both, long-standing allies of Maduro, are accused by the opposition of being central to the regime’s repressive apparatus. The sanctions were last extended in December until January 2027.

By Jeyhun Aghazada