The former president of the Government, the socialist Felipe González, recalled the “trust” relationship he had with Pope Francis and has revealed that He came to ask for help to intercede in the situation of “repression” that was lived in Venezuela, although he considers that “he did not get wet” enough.
In a video released by the foundation of the former president, González remembers that asked for help several times Through the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Pietro Parolin, respect “to the drama that was lived in Venezuela” with the “tyrant” of Nicolás Maduro.
González sent him “a long explanation” of how he saw the situation and, although did not answer directly to that communication, He saw “the reflection of that answer” in a statement issued by the Holy See. In him text, he asked to overcome the crisis with political prisoners and repression in the South American country.
“My feeling was that They never wet sufficiently, In my opinion, and that feeling personally hurt me, but I did not alter my relationship with him, “he said. In addition, he has reported the first meeting he had with the then archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, in 2001, in the middle of the Argentine crisis of the Corralito.
González traveled to Buenos Aires convened by the then president Fernando de la Rúa and He maintained interviews with several people from the world of politics and the economyA in a context of strong social crisis, with dead in the streets for clashes with the police.
He assures that of all the meetings that he maintained those days, that of Bergoglio was the one that impressed him the most because He made “the lucid analysis” about that moment. “It filled me with information,” he says.
He also recalls that the Bergoglio assistant who received him warned him that he was “papable.” “Thing that surprised me a lot, He had no idea that anyone was thinking of 2001 that he could have a papable character“, He points out. Then, once Pope was appointed, they held several more meetings, he says.
González remembers Pope Francis as a person “of the highest level of information”, “A great conversationalist and quite a joker” that communicated with “enormous naturalness” and “very direct and human”.
