The Joe Biden Administration has confirmed its firm support for opposition leader Juan Guaido amid new threats from the Bolivarian regime. “The United States will continue to recognize the 2015 National Assembly as the last remaining democratic institution in Venezuela. And, consequently, Juan Guaido as interim president,” said Ned Price, spokesman for the State Department.
“Maduro is a dictator. His repression, corruption, and mismanagement have created one of the most appalling humanitarian crises this hemisphere has seen,” Price stressed, just hours after the International Contact Group, sponsored by the European Union, Led by its High Representative, Josep Borrell, and in which eight Latin American countries also participate, it called on its “international partners” to seek a new strategy regarding Venezuela, in a clear reference to the new administration in Washington.
Price has assured that they will work together with allied countries, the Lima Group and the Organization of American States (OAS) to “put an end to the corrupt dictatorship”, but that he does not expect to have direct contact with the regime “in the short term. The primary objective of the Biden-Harris Administration is to support a democratic administration in Venezuela, through free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, in addition to helping the Venezuelan people rebuild their lives and their country,” added the government spokesman,
The democratic opposition gathered around Guaido has received with relief the US accolade when the European Union has “lowered” its status to that of a “privileged interlocutor.” “Venezuelans continue to count on the support of the United States as the main ally in our fight for free, fair and verifiable elections. To the humanitarian assistance for brothers in the region will now be added the TPS (Special Protection Status) for Venezuelans in the United States,” he said. underlined Carlos Vecchio, Guaido’s ambassador in Washington. The Venezuelan opposition is internally debating to make way for a new reunification process amid the division. The vehicle to confront the dictatorship is the union,” Guaidó recalled yesterday during a meeting between parties and civil society while calling to accompany the students in their protest day on February 12.
SOME WIVES FOR GUAIDO
Several initiatives in search of a dialogue between the parties have been launched in recent weeks, even from Chavismo itself, knowing that Washington intends to use sanctions to achieve progress in democratic conquests. Maduro offers the elections for governor, scheduled for the end of the year, but he does not want to know anything about presidential or parliamentary elections, as the international community demands.
Norwegian diplomats returned to Caracas this week after last year’s fiasco, as the Puebla Group moves its pawns for the benefit of the regime. Those who already sit at the same government table are businessmen from the Fedecamaras employer’s association, willing to advance in the agreements with the government.
Calls for dialogue are always accompanied by new threats, such as those made by Iris Varela, first vice president of the revolutionary National Assembly, as a result of the fraudulent elections in December. The former Prison Minister, a close associate of Maduro, used handcuffs during a television interview to directly threaten the president in charge. “I am an authority of the Republic, these handcuffs are to be put on Guaidó wherever I see him.
Wherever I see him I put him at the command of the authority,” said Varela, also ensuring that the handcuffs are his. It is time for him to respond to all the damage he has done to the country. He is an enemy of the people, an enemy of the homeland,” added the radical leader, who has been demanding for days the capture of the legitimate deputies who remain in Venezuela.
