Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez, on a tour of South America, has today said that Venezuela cannot be considered a democratic country because it has political prisoners.
Back in Spain, of course, many people consider the pro-independence Catalan leaders who have been held in pretrial detention for months now to be themselves political prisoners. Many people have taken to social media to comment on this apparent contradiction, including the political scientist Ramón Cotarelo:
Venezuela no es una democracia, según @sanchezcastejon, porque tiene presos políticos. https://t.co/4ojEtTN1cT España sí lo es aun teniendo presos políticos. El secreto está en el morro que se le eche.
— Ramón Cotarelo (@ramoncotarelo) 30 d’agost de 2018
Translation: Venezuela isn't a democracy, according to Pedro Sánchez, because it's got political prisoners. Spain is one though, even having political prisoners. The secret is how much nerve you've got.
Em sembla un criteri molt adient per a entendre si un Estat és democràtic o no ho és.
— Enric Calpena (@CalpenaEnric) 30 d’agost de 2018
Pedro Sánchez: “No se puede decir que Venezuela es una democracia cuando hay presos políticos” https://t.co/hagiLIpLmA via @eldiarioes
It seems a very suitable criterion to me to know whether a state is democratic or not. Pedro Sánchez: "You cannot say that Venezuela is a democracy when there are political prisoners"
Molt bona anàlisi de Pedro Sánchez: “No se puede decir que Venezuela es una democracia cuando hay presos políticos”. Però no cal que travessi l'Atlàntic...
— Pere Bosch Cuenca (@pboschcuenca) 30 d’agost de 2018
Very good analysis by Pedro Sánchez: "You cannot say that Venezuela is a democracy when there are political prisoners". But it doesn't have to cross the Atlantic...
Pedro Sánchez: “En Venezuela no hay democracia porque hay presos políticos”.
— Josep M. Merino (@JMMD8) 30 d’agost de 2018
Cambiamos Venezuela por España y ya lo tendríamos... Alemania y Bélgica se han encargado de demostrar que en España, tampoco hay democracia.https://t.co/IsnXKBkKcQ
Pedro Sánchez: "There's no democracy in Venezuela because there are political prisoners". Let's change "Venezuela" for "Spain" and we've got it... Germany and Belgium have taken charge of demonstrating that in Spain there's isn't democracy either.
Igualito que en España. Pedro Sánchez: “En Venezuela no hay democracia porque hay presos políticos” | España | EL PAÍS https://t.co/tl1znjH0ZC
— Munt cat (@CatMunt) 30 d’agost de 2018
Just the same as in Spain. Pedro Sánchez: "You cannot say that Venezuela is a democracy when there are political prisoners"