SPAIN’S prime minister has said his government will not recognise President Trump’s intervention in Venezuela after US forces launched an unprecedented military assault that resulted in the capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
“Spain did not recognise the Maduro regime,” Pedro Sanchez wrote on X on Saturday evening.
“But neither will it recognise an intervention that violates international law and pushes the region toward a horizon of uncertainty and belligerence.
“We call on all actors to think of the civilian population, to respect the United Nations Charter, and to articulate a fair and dialogued transition.”
Speaking earlier in the day, Sanchez said the Spanish embassy and consulate remained operational with his government ‘conducting a thorough monitoring of the events in Venezuela’.
“We call for de-escalation and responsibility. International law and the principles of the United Nations Charter must be respected,” he added.
READ MORE: Spain moves to mediate US-Venezuela tensions following Maduro capture
In a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, President Trump announced that America will run the South American country for an unspecified transitional period following an ‘extraordinary’ US special forces operation in the early hours of Saturday morning.
“We’re going to run the country until such a time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said.
“We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela and doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”
More than 150 US aircraft were used in the mission, taking out key military sites in Caracas before elite Delta Force soldiers moved in to abduct Maduro, the socialist leader who has clung on to power since 2013, from a ‘fortress-like’ compound in the heart of the Venezuelan capital.
READ MORE: Trump excludes Spain from new coalition against ‘state-sponsored Venezuelan drug cartel’
“This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history,” said Trump.
“The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise we have. It was dark and it was deadly.”
Maduro and his wife have been taken to New York where they will face charges of ‘narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States’.
Washington accuses Maduro of leading the Cartel of the Suns narco gang, which he denies.
Spain and Venezuela have close historic ties – over 250,000 Venezuelans currently live in Spain – but relations have soured since 2024 and a disputed election many international commentators believe was rigged in Maduro’s favour.
After the vote, Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez fled to Madrid where he has lived in exile ever since.
Diplomatic relations plummeted even further after a government minister branded the Maduro regime as a ‘dictatorship’.
In response, the Venezuelan government recalled its ambassador to Spain and summoned the Spanish ambassador to appear at the foreign ministry in the wake of the comment, which was criticised as ‘insolent, interventionist and rude’.
Spain did not recognise Maduro’s disputed election victory and refused to send any representatives to his inauguration.
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