MADRID, April 20, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Spain's leftist government said Monday it was a "mistake" for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to meet right-wing parties in Madrid while declining talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who addressed supporters at a large rally in Madrid on Saturday, has criticised Spain's government for not more forcefully condemning human rights abuses in Venezuela.

She met with the leader of Spain's main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Nunez Feijoo, as well as the head of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, during her time in the Spanish capital.

However, she told Spanish media she declined a meeting with Sanchez because it would not serve the "higher objective" of Venezuela's freedom.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Machado had acted as an "ideological leader" by engaging with only part of Spain's political spectrum.

"I sincerely believe that is a mistake. And when it is the far-right faction, it is an even greater mistake," Albares said during an interview with Spanish public radio.

Albares rejected Machado's criticisms as "unfair," noting that Spain has granted refuge to several Venezuelan opposition figures such as Leopoldo López and has offered Machado refuge in Caracas in the past.

Machado, who was in hiding before leaving Venezuela in December to collect her Nobel Prize in Oslo, was barred from running for president in the 2024 election, which resulted in longtime leader Nicolas Maduro claiming re-election in a vote the opposition says was rigged.

Since leaving Venezuela, Machado has held talks with world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, as she lobbies for international support for the Venezuelan opposition.