CARACAS (Reuters) – The Venezuelan government has called on its ambassador to Spain as well as Spain’s ambassador to the Latin American nation, Venezuela’s foreign minister said on Thursday, ramping up a diplomatic feud.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, in a post to the messaging platform Telegram, cited “insolent, interventionist and rude” comments from Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles as motivation for the move.
Robles had called the Venezuelan administration a “dictatorship” earlier in the day, local media reported.
Gil said that he had recalled Gladys Gutierrez, the nation’s ambassador to Spain, to Venezuela for consultations, while at the same time summoning Spanish Ambassador to Venezuela Ramon Santos to appear before the foreign ministry on Friday.
Also on Thursday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met Venezuela’s self-exiled opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez in Madrid, a day after the lower house of Spain’s parliament voted to recognise Gonzalez as the winner of the contested presidential election.
The Venezuelan opposition has published detailed vote tallies which pointed to a resounding victory for Gonzalez.
But the national elections authority, which has not published the detailed votes, declared incumbent President Nicolas Maduro the victor.
Maduro has shrugged off international criticism as a right-wing plot.
(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)