María Corina Machado announced her visit to Spain a week ago ―carefully organized together with the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso― and everything surrounding the trip has caused a stir, especially in the City Council of the capital. The mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, got ahead of the regional Government, at least in terms of the tributes: this Friday he will present the Venezuelan opposition leader with the Key to Madrid, an honor almost exclusively for heads of state, and defending it has led him, a day before the event, to attack the opposition leaders, Rita Maestre (Más Madrid) and Reyes Maroto (PSOE), for not attending the recognition due to a lack of “gallantry.” “They do not have the dignity nor the moral stature to hold María Corina Machado’s gaze,” he said during the press conference following the Government Board meeting.
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Neither Maroto nor Maestre will attend the key presentation to the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner. The socialist leader will be in Barcelona for work this Friday, where she will meet with Mayor Jaume Collboni, and the party states that she has already excused her absence, supported the initiative in the Plenary, and that a councilor will attend on behalf of the group. They do not understand, they add, the permanent confrontation in which the mayor “lives.”
In the case of Más Madrid, Maestre will not attend the event and refers to the regulations. “It is an honor reserved for heads of state on official visits. María Corina Machado is not the head of state of any country. If the PP wants to throw a private party, they should pay for it themselves from Génova,” she comments. And she adds: “It is very serious because it is adding insult to injury; they already wanted to give the city medal to Israel during the genocide, now they are going to give the Community medal to Trump’s USA. It is indecent and indefensible.”
For the mayor, the decision not to attend is a lack of “decency” and responds to the “friends they have” the councilors in the Latin American country: “They do not have enough courage to attend that event, look María Corina Machado in the eyes and congratulate her for all she has achieved, for being an extraordinary woman and for receiving the golden keys of the city of Madrid.” Almeida does consider it “completely legitimate” that Maroto and Maestre showed their disagreement with the honor, something the Más Madrid leader already did last Monday. “What disqualifies them,” he opines, “is that they have not had even a miserable word of recognition” towards her.
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The municipal regulations state that the key must be given to all heads of state who visit the city, but do not specify to whom it cannot be given, so, in a loose interpretation of the rules, which the City Council adopts, the Venezuelan opposition leader can receive the honor. She will do so this Friday at 18:00 in the Casa de la Villa. So far, only two exceptions have been made, with the Crown Prince of Japan, Naruhito, in 2008, and in 2011, with the now King Charles of England, when he was still a prince.
Almeida defended this Thursday, as he did when announcing the recognition ―days later, the Community announced it will award the Gold Medal to Corina Machado―, that the Venezuelan opposition leader is “a symbol of freedom, human rights, and democracy.” The Popular Party is the most enthusiastic about the visit. In fact, the Madrid president and the Venezuelan opposition leader will hold a meeting at 17:30 on Saturday, half an hour before a gathering of Venezuelans in Sol, and it is still undecided whether both women will appear together on the balcony or show their harmony with a photo.
