The Chavista government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has blocked former Prime Minister of Spain, Felipe Gonzalez, from visiting with that governments jailed opposition leaders, Leopoldo Lopez and Daniel Ceballos.
Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, attorney for the opposition leader Leopoldo López, told EFE that González had asked permission to visit López and another defendant, Daniel Ceballos.
The former prime minister also asked to attend court hearings involving López and Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma. Venezuela already barred the Spaniard from participating in the proceedings as defense counsel.
Neither request has received an official answer from either the government or the judges, so González decided not to fight that decision, Gutiérrez said.
"All the necessary documents have been presented for the authorities to allow him to attend the trial and to enter the prisons, but no official response has been received in writing, so González's attitude of institutional respect for the Venezuelan authorities seems to me perfectly correct," the attorney said. (Source)
Does this denial of access to partisans by the socialist Venezuelan government surprise anyone?
Maduro, earned his stripes under the tutelage of his deceased mentor and friend, Hugo Chavez, is not expected to change his mind of allowing Gonzalez see Lopez or Ceballos, were the former prime minister decide to return the Venezuela.
Remember, Maduro once said that Chavez appeared to him in a form of a little bird.
