Venezuela Denies EU Lawmakers Entry Given 'Conspiratorial Motives'

[Oele]

By Reuters
Feb. 17, 2019

CARACAS — Venezuela denied a group of European Parliament deputies entry into the country on Sunday, arguing they had "conspiratorial motives" for flying to Caracas in the throes of a political crisis.

The European Parliament last month joined a slew of Western nations in recognizing Venezuelan opposition chief Juan Guaido as interim head of state after President Nicolas Maduro won a second term in an election last year that critics denounced as a sham.

The four deputies from the center-right European People's Party (EPP) were traveling to Venezuela to meet with Guaido, one of them said in a video distributed via social media.

"They have retained our passports, they haven't communicated the reason for our expulsion," Esteban González Pons said.

more @ https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/02/17/world/americas/17reuters-venezuela-politics-eu.html

[GatoGordo]

1. More

Spain and France condemn the expulsion of MEPs from Venezuela
The minister of the Spanish nation indicated that the position of his country and the European Union is to recognize Juan Guaidó as interim president

translated from Spanish

The Foreign Ministers of Spain and France, Josep Borrell and Jean-Yves Le Drian, condemned this decision Nicolás Maduro's decision to expel from Venezuela a group of MEPs who wanted to meet with the interim president, Juan Guaidó.

"Naturally we would have liked them to enter and we condemned the attitude of the Venezuelan government, Mr. Maduro, of not letting them in," Borrell told the press upon his arrival at a Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union (EU).

Borrell explained that he was in contact with the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, who "made all possible arrangements with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela to request and facilitate the entry of these parliamentarians."

"We strongly protest the conditions in which five European deputies have been expelled today who were going to worry about the democratic process in Venezuela," Le Drian said.

-snip-

http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/europa/espana-francia-condenan-expulsion-eurodiputados-venezuela_271228

The "democratic process" in Venezuela is democratic only when it suits the Chavista/Castroist regime. "Elections"... providing that they occur WHEN the Chavistas want them and WHO they say can run against the PSUV candidate... and even then "democracy" isn't guaranteed. Such as when the super-majority of opposition in the AN was elected in 2015 and promptly held in contempt by the all Chavista TSJ (Venezuelan Supreme Court). Or when the fraudulent governor elections saw that despite all the effort the Chavistas put into the fraud, several opposition governors won... only to have those elections nullified by the TSJ and those governors replaced by Chavistas.