Joe Duggan (Reporter)
PODEMOS and ETA representatives flew to Venezuela for talks organised by president Nicolas Maduro’s regime in 2014, reports suggest.
Pablo Iglesias’s leader in Castilla-La Mancha, María José Aguilar, and Anna Gabriel, spokesperson for Catalan independence party the CUP, were among 33 people travelling to the Caracas conference from Madrid’s Barajas airport on December 10.
The party travelled in a military aeroplane normally reserved for the Venezuelan government.
The father of senior ETA member Kizkitza Gil San Vicente was among the guests, whose travel costs were paid by Maduro’s government.
The group claimed to be travelling to Venezuela for talks about the peace process in the Basque Country.
Since photographs of the trip appeared in the Spanish media this week, Podemos have sought to distance themselves from Aguilar’s visit.
The party claim she was invited to attend via her work email address at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, where she was a professor.
Podemos say Aguilar was invited to participate in a conference about human rights and migration.
Iglesias’s party has always denied any accusations that they have received illegal funding from the Venezuelan regime
The conference organised by the Venezuelan government attracted more than 300 representatives from around the world, including Catholic priest and ex-president of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel D´Escoto.
