VENEZUELA’S OPPOSITION leader Juan Guaidó has declared himself the interim president, in a dramatic escalation of efforts to force out Nicolás Maduro, who has overseen the country’s slide into authoritarianism and economic ruin.
Guaidó was quickly recognised by the US, Canada, European Union, Brazil, Colombia and other US allies in the Americas. Donald Trump warned that “all options are on the table” if Maduro responded with force against the opposition, but US officials made clear that the White House was focused on economic measures and would look at ways to transfer Venezuelan assets and oil revenues to Guaidó and the opposition-run national assembly.
Maduro responded with defiance, cutting off relations with the US and ordering all US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours.
“We are defending the right to the very existence of our Bolivarian republic,” Maduro told supporters at a rally outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. He urged them to resist “at all costs” what he called a coup attempt being orchestrated by “the coup-mongering, interventionist gringo empire” and the “fascist right”.
“They intend to govern Venezuela from Washington,” Maduro shouted from the palace’s people’s balcony. “Do you want a puppet government controlled by Washington?”
Not to be undone, Guaidó issued his own statement, urging foreign embassies to disavow Maduro’s orders and keep their diplomats in the country. A few hours later, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the US would abide by Guaidó’s directive and ignore Maduro’s order to withdraw its diplomats.
Another committee member, Vladimir Dzhabrailov, said: “I do not think that we can recognise this – it is, in essence, a coup.”
Turkey and Cuba and Bolivia’s Evo Morales have also offered their support for Maduro.
In a statement, 11 of the 14 members of regional bloc the Lima Group said they supported the start of a democratic transition in Venezuela “in order to hold new elections, in the shortest time”. The three holdouts included Mexico, which has maintained a principle of non-intervention under leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as Guyana and Santa Lucia.
The EU’s foreign affairs representative, Federica Mogherini, called for work to begin on holding free and credible elections, saying: “The people of Venezuela have massively called for democracy and the possibility to freely determine their own destiny. These voices cannot be ignored.”
On Wednesday, thousands of protesters clogged the streets of the capital, Caracas, with authorities claiming seven protesters had been killed during a day of demonstrations across the country.
The protests came as Guaidó, the head of the national assembly, raised his right hand and said: “I swear to assume all the powers of the presidency to secure an end to the usurpation”.
