Pedro Sánchez is, by far, the leader of the European Union (EU) who has been most belligerent against the military intervention carried out by the US on Saturday to arrest the dictator Nicolás Maduro on Venezuelan soil and bring him to justice.
And the only one that has signed a joint statement with the five leftist governments of Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay) that rejects the “external interference” of the United States in Venezuela, considering that it sets “an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and puts the civilian population at risk.”
The statement released this Sunday presents the military operation promoted by Trump against the dictator Maduro as an “attempt at government control, administration or external appropriation of natural or strategic resources” from Venezuela.
Throughout the weekend, the governments of Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico) and Lula da Silva (Brazil) had tried to have this note jointly signed by the 33 member countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
However, several conservative executives led by Argentine President Javier Milei (who has been enthusiastic about the dictator’s fall) stopped these claims.
Already on Saturday, after learning of Maduro’s arrest, the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, had announced that he was in close contact with his “counterparts” from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Chile to analyze the evolution of events in Venezuela.
That is to say, from the first moment the Spanish Government coordinated its position on the events in Venezuela with the governments most sympathetic to the Maduro regime.
With different nuances: Gustavo Petro, Lula da Silva and Claudia Sheinbaum have never condemned the violation of human rights by the Maduro regime, while Gabriel Boric (also aligned with the Puebla Group) marked distances and refused to recognize him as the winner of the fraudulent elections of July 2024.
The joint statement signed by the Spanish Government indicates that “the situation in Venezuela must be resolved exclusively through peaceful means, through dialogue, negotiation and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in all its expressions, without external interference and in accordance with international law”.
After the press conference offered on Saturday by Trump at the White House, in which he detailed details about the detention of Maduro by US special forces, Pedro Sánchez published a message on X in which he announced that, just as “Spain did not recognize the Maduro regime, it will not recognize an intervention that violates international law and pushes the region into a horizon of uncertainty and warmongering“.
And in his “letter to the militancy” of the PSOE released on Sunday, Sánchez went a little further by expressing that he “strongly condemns” the military operation carried out by the US on Saturday to arrest the dictator Nicolás Maduro, considering that it is a “violation of international legality.”
Spain did not recognize the Maduro regime. But neither will it recognize an intervention that violates international law and pushes the region into a horizon of uncertainty and war.
We ask all actors to think about the civilian population, to respect the Charter of…
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) January 3, 2026
But this position of Pedro Sánchez is far from that held by other leaders of the European Union.
“The Venezuelan people have freed themselves today from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and can only rejoice“, declared the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday, “by seizing power and trampling on fundamental freedoms, Nicolás Maduro seriously undermined the dignity of his own people.”
The Venezuelan people are today rid of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship and can only rejoice.
By seizing power and trampling on fundamental freedoms, Nicolás Maduro gravely undermined the dignity of his own people.
The upcoming transition…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 3, 2026
Macron also expressed the hope that the legitimate winner of the 2024 elections, Edmundo González, can soon ensure a “peaceful, democratic transition respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people.”
The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recalled that “Italy has always supported the aspirations of the Venezuelan people for a democratic transition in Venezuela, condemning the repressive actions of the Maduro regimewhose self-proclaimed electoral victory Italy, along with its main international partners, has never recognized.”
The Italian Government, he added, “believes that External military action is not the way to end totalitarian regimesbut at the same time it considers legitimate defensive intervention against hybrid attacks on its security, such as those carried out by state entities that fuel and facilitate drug trafficking.”
And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was emphatic, in a message published in X: “Nicolás Maduro has led his country to ruin. The last elections were fraudulent. Therefore, like many other countries, we have not recognized his presidency. “Maduro has played a problematic role in the region.”
Nicolás Maduro has led his country into ruin. The most recent election was rigged. Like many other countries, we have therefore not recognized his presidency. Maduro has played a problematic role in the region.
— Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (@bundeskanzler) January 3, 2026
The Spanish Government adhered last night to a joint statement of 26 of the 27 members of the EU (all except Hungary), in which “the European Union requests calm and restraint to all actors to avoid escalation and guarantee a peaceful solution to the crisis“, with full respect for “human rights and international humanitarian law.”
The European partners emphasize that Nicolás Maduro “lacks the legitimacy of a democratically elected president” and advocate “a negotiated, democratic, inclusive and peaceful solution to the crisis“that respects the will of the Venezuelan people.