Venezuela has banned entry into a group of MEPs and accused them of „conspiratorial motives“. The four members of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) wanted to meet with the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, according to a delegation member.
„We are expelled from Venezuela,“ said Spanish MEP Esteban González Pons at the airport of the Venezuelan capital Caracas. „They have withheld our passports, they have not given us any reasons.“ González Pons stressed that he and the four other MEPs had an official invitation from the Venezuelan Parliament, whose president is Guaidó, the opposition leader. Together with González Pons, Spanish MEPs José Ignacio Salafranca and Gabriel Mato Adrover, Esther de Lange from the Netherlands and Portuguese Paulo Rangel wanted to enter. They all belong to the Group of the Christian-Democratic European People’s Party (EPP).
Guaidó criticized in the short message service Twitter, the MEPs have been expelled from an „isolated and increasingly irrational regime“. Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, on the other hand, said about the short message service that MEPs had been warned several days before they entered the country. They would have wanted to visit the country with „conspiratorial targets“ and should abstain from further „provocations“.
Parliament leader Guaidó had appointed himself interim president on 23 January, openly challenging the controversial President Nicolas Maduro. Guaidó is now recognized as a transitional president by some 50 states, including the US, a number of Latin American countries, and several EU states such as Germany and Austria, but not the EU as a whole. On the other hand, the EU Parliament recognized Guaidó as interim president on 31 January.
