Pedro Sanchez plans to give political asylum to Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, maintains predecessor's line with Maduro regime

Leopoldo López landed in Spain on Sunday, but his trip did not make the front pages for almost 48 hours. The Venezuelan opposition leader has been received by Pedro Sánchez and has stated that the president considers Maduro "a dictator". The Bolivarian leader, for his part, accuses the Spanish government of having participated in the "escape" of a "dangerous criminal".

Relations between the two countries are tense. Above all, taking into account that Leopoldo López lived, until he took the plane in Caracas, in the residence of the Spanish Ambassador in the Venezuelan capital. Government sources consulted by LPO affirm, however, that the matter will not result in any diplomatic conflict.

They assure that "the residence is surrounded" by Venezuelan police agents and that, therefore, "everyone knew that López was going to leave". They remember, "just days before his trip, Maduro's government affirmed that Leopoldo was a mere guest in the country who only had to leave".

The change of discourse by the Bolivarian regime, which has accused the Pedro Sánchez government, "is nothing more than a strategy", in the opinion of senior government officials: "There Guaidó is saying that he has escaped, and Maduro and his people are reacting by blaming Spain. But there is nothing".

Regarding the accusations of "aiding the escape", the same sources explain to this outlet that "there has been no type of operation". Nonetheless, they acknowledge that when López lived in Jesús Silva's residence, the Spanish Ambassador in Caracas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Arancha González Laya had known "for days" of his departure from the country.

Sánchez, like Rajoy

The information, in any case, was shared only with the right people: "It is likely that [Vice-president] Pablo Iglesias was already notified as a fait accompli. Pedro Sánchez and his cabinet, for their part, decided that it was a good idea to receive the Venezuelan dissident, but "repeating Mariano Rajoy's strategy".

Government officials consulted by LPO explain that the president imitated his predecessor in his strategy of meeting with López in Ferraz (the headquarters of the PSOE) instead of in Moncloa: "Rajoy acted the same way. When any representative of the Venezuelan opposition came to Spain, he received them in Genoa (the PP headquarters), to avoid a confrontation between the governments".

The PSOE has offered photographs of the meeting, but has not given details of what it was discussed. The Venezuelan opposition, on the other hand, has assured that the President of the Spanish Government regards Maduro as a "dictator".

The "asylum" of López, in the hands of the Interior

This is what the Venezuelan opposition leader assured in a press conference held in Madrid on Tuesday, in which he assured that he left Venezuela "clandestinely" and that he intends to return to "liberate the country".

However, the Executive Branch is preparing for Leopoldo López' stay in Spain in compliance with the law.

According to sources consulted by LPO, the Ministry of the Interior is already studying the option of changing his status to "refugee" or to grant him "asylum for family reunification", since his parents, his wife Lilian Tintori and his three children already reside in Spain.