Row erupted after Spanish lawmakers called on Venezuela to release jailed opposition leaders

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Spain has recalled its ambassador to Caracas after the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, accused Madrid of terrorism.

“Given the level of verbal irritation that I have seen from President Maduro, I have decided to recall our ambassador to Caracas for consultation,” Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, said on Wednesday as a row between the two countries intensified.

“The adjectives used by the authorities – never by the Venezuelan people – are absolutely intolerable,” he added.

Maduro accused the government of Spanishprime minister, Mariano Rajoy, of “supporting terrorism” in Venezuela and of being behind “an international conspiracy to overthrow the government”.

He said Rajoy belonged to a “group of corrupt [leaders], bandits and thieves”.

Spain and Venezuela summoned each other’s ambassadors on 15 April as accusations flew back and forth across the Atlantic of a Venezuelan crackdown on the opposition and Spanish “racism” and “meddling”.

The spat erupted after Spanish lawmakers passed a motion on 14 April calling on Venezuela, a former colony of Spain, to release jailed opposition leaders.

Maduro condemned the measure as “an act of aggression by corrupt Spanish elites” and called Rajoy “a racist”.

Tensions rose over Spain’s support for the jailed opposition figures Antonio Ledezma, the mayor of Caracas, and Leopoldo López, a political leader.

López is accused of playing a role in student demonstrations against the government that left 43 people dead last year.