Venezuelan leader María Corina Machado arrives in Madrid on Friday to meet Spanish right-wing leaders. She will first meet Alberto Núñez Feijóo at PP headquarters, then Santiago Abascal of Vox, and finally Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who will award her the Gold Medal of the Community of Madrid.
María Corina Machado will start her Madrid visit on Friday at 10:00 at the PP national headquarters on Génova 13. There, she will meet behind closed doors with party president Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in an event attended by leaders, deputies and senators. "We will receive her as one of our own, because she is. The PP is her party and Génova is her home in Europe", PP sources stated.
In the afternoon, she will meet Vox president Santiago Abascal at a time yet to be confirmed. From 17:30, she will go to Puerta del Sol, where Community of Madrid president Isabel Díaz Ayuso will present her with the Gold Medal. Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia will also receive the award.
Machado has declined to meet the Spanish government, despite a formal offer, to avoid hindering Venezuela's freedom process. "In certain moments, some meetings are convenient, and others are not for that objective", she explained on Cope, prioritizing "the higher objective of Venezuela's freedom".
The PSOE has criticized the meetings, accusing the PP of trying to counterprogram the visit of Latin American left-wing leaders to Sánchez.