Venezuela’s sidelined opposition-controlled legislature is calling for a mass protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a bid to oust the socialist leader in favor of “a transitional government.”
Maduro, 56, was on Thursday sworn in for a second term, having won a controversial election in May that was boycotted by the opposition and branded a fraud by the US, the EU and the Organization of American States (OAS).
The constitution gives the legislature the right to assume transitional power after declaring Maduro a “usurper,” Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido said on Friday, but added that it would need military backing and for people to take to the streets to demand change.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Is it enough to lean on the constitution in a dictatorship? No. It needs to be the people, the military and the international community that lead us to take over,” said the 35 year-old Guaido, speaking to a crowd of about 1,000 opposition supporters in Caracas.
In response, Minister of Popular Power for the Prison Service Iris Varela threatened Guaido on Twitter, saying that she had a cell ready for him — as Maduro dismissed the opposition as “little boys.”
However, Guaido’s announcement was welcomed outside of Venezuela.
US National Security Advisor John Bolton said the administration of US President Donald Trump “resolutely supports the Venezuelan National Assembly, the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people,” and especially supports “the courageous decision” by Guaido to “declare that Maduro does not legitimately hold the country’s presidency.”
In Washington, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro recognized Guaido as head of state, as the person at the top of Venezuela’s only legitimate governing body.
“We welcome the assumption of @jguaido as interim President of Venezuela,” Almagro tweeted.
Brazil’s far-right government welcomed Guaido’s readiness to “constitutionally assume the Venezuelan presidency.”
Guaido called for a mass protest on January 23 — the day in 1958 on which the military dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez fell.
The National Assembly has dismissed Maduro’s election as illegitimate, but the body has been sidelined by the president’s power grab.
Maduro is widely blamed for the country’s economic crisis, with basic food and medicine scarce and hyperinflation estimated to reach 10 million percent this year, according to the IMF.
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