CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela said yesterday it had cited Colombia’s ambassador for an explanation of why the neighboring country flew out a former Spanish prime minister who had traveled to Caracas to support the opposition.
President Nicolas Maduro’s government is furious over the visit of Felipe Gonzalez, Spain’s longest-serving prime minister, to meet with the opposition bloc in support of jailed politicians Leopoldo Lopez and Daniel Ceballos.
“Unfortunately I was taken aback with the news that a plane of the Colombian Air Force assigned to the presidency of the Colombian Republic came to take him out of the country,” Maduro said on state television.
“Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez has cited the Colombian ambassador here in Caracas to demand explanations. I hope these explanations are sufficient and very clear over this situation, because I have been denouncing a Madrid-Bogota-Miami axis (against the government),” he added, speaking next to a photo of late leader Hugo Chavez.
