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.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not