Venezuelan spies leave Spain after a warning from the government.
Nicolas Maduro has given the warnings of the Spanish Government, which in February expressed complaints about the apparent espionage activity of some of its diplomats. In late April, a total of sixteen accredited military personnel of the Embassy of Venezuela in Spain returned to their country of origin. Among them, Lieutenant Colonel Jose Rafael Vasquez Mora, who was attached to the Defense Attaché and had been denounced as a spy, with graphic documentation by Venezuelan entities in Spain. The Spanish Foreign Ministry confirmed in February that the officer had made "activities incompatible" with his diplomatic status.
Downsizing has to do with budget cuts, given the serious economic situation in the Caribbean nation. In fact, other embassies of Venezuela, as that country has in Bolivia and Brazil, have also gone through a process of repatriations. However, the fact that Vasquez Mora, reported to Spanish prosecution for "harassing" the resident Venezuelan opposition in Madrid, the product has been affected by this withdrawal is explained by the discomfort of the Government of Maduro when the activities of the military were unveiled and the group of suspected spies in charge. So say the sources that reveal changes in the Embassy in Spain.
These sources indicate that the staff of the Defense Attaché at the Venezuelan delegation has been reduced to about five people, many of them civilian agents of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin). That makes one suspect that espionage activities continue, though probably not reach levels reported by the Venezuelan Student Association in Spain, the Platform of Venezuelans in Madrid and the Civil Association of Venezuelans in the Spanish capital.
In the writings transferred to the Attorney General, who in late January decided to open a case, these entities came to point up to seven different individuals as responsible for tasks intimidation of opponents. Of them it could only be identified Vasquez Mora, whose official responsibility was press officer of the Defense attache of the Embassy of Madrid. Him several photographs were achieved when impersonating student and participating in acts of Venezuelan diaspora.
There are also images of another suspected member of that group. It was recorded on video, with mobile phone, Mitzy Capriles, the wife of Antonio Ledezma, Caracas metropolitan mayor jailed for just over one year. She says the man was following in one of his visits to Madrid.
The Embassy of Venezuela attributed the progress of these military to mere matters of internal organization. The budgetary difficulties are evident, which also meet the shortage of foreign exchange available to the Caribbean country. There are diplomats who have delays in the payment of rents; Lieutenant Colonel Vasquez Mora asked to himself the passage back to Caracas was paid, and was promised that there would restore the price in Bolivars.
undue functions
Late last February, after obtaining the relevant reports, the Foreign Ministry confirmed that the officer had made improper functions by Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said the Venezuelan ambassador to Spain, Mario Isea, which must cease immediately such behavior. Later there was a new diplomatic tensions between Caracas and Madrid following more insults of the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro against Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, which led to Garcia-Margallo call Isea to express their grievances . Shortly after he carried out the drastic downsizing of the military attaché of the Venezuelan embassy.
To Henrry Narveiz, president of the Venezuelan Association of Students in Spain, "it is an incentive to know that pressure has made the complaint is serving for something." He was pleased that "this kind of thing in Spain do not go unpunished, because we see that the Government of Venezuela yielding to pressure the Government of Spain." To Narveiz Vasquez Mora he had become a "hot potato" for Caracas.
Meanwhile, William Cardenas, the lawyer who prepared the complaint filed earlier this year, considers it "very important that the Government of Maduro has decided to return to Venezuela such a large group of people who have participated in this work of harassment Venezuelans in Spain 'citizens. While admitting that the Bolivarian diplomatic retreat is also taking place in other countries, it believes that "it is no coincidence" that the march Vasquez Mora has occurred a few weeks after warnings Minister García-Margallo.
