Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has declared himself the interim president of Venezuela. Erstwhile socialist President Nicolas Maduro swears to break relations with the United States, ordering US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours. Guaido has the support of the United States as well as those of several Latin American countries.
Shortly after declaring himself as interim president, US President Donald Trump recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s new interim leader and urged him to hold elections as soon as possible. Canada, Venezuela’s neighbours Brazil and Columbia, as well as several Latin American countries recognized Guaido as the country’s temporary leader.
US Says Maduro Does Not Have the Legal Power to Break Relations, Sack Diplomats
The US Department of State said it will not recognize Maduro’s order asking US diplomats to leave Venezuela within 72 hours. The United States said Maduro does not have the legal authority to sack diplomats or break international relations given that he is no longer recognized as his country’s president.
“The United States does not consider former president Nicolas Maduro to have the legal authority to break diplomatic relations with the United States or to declare our diplomats persona non grata,” the US said.
Guaido told hundreds of thousands of supporters in Caracas that Maduro seized power and promised to establish a transitional government that would bring the country out of hyperinflationary economic collapse. The 35-year-old opposition-led congress leader said he has assumed “all powers of the presidency to secure an end to the usurpation.”
The country’s laws provide that the head of congress should assume presidency and then call for elections within 30 days if the presidency is ever vacant. Venezuela has the largest oil reserve in the world, and used to be the envy of other South American nations. But it is now riddled with corruption, violence and facing hyperinflationary economic collapse.
US Sent Hospital Ship to South America, Russia Sent Two Nuclear Warplanes
But Maduro accused the United States of supporting a coup to upstage his government. He told supporters outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas in a televised broadcast that “We’ve had enough interventionism; here we have dignity, damn it! Here are a people willing to defend this land.”
Just last month, Russia sent two Tu-160 strategic bombers capable deploying nuclear weapons to Maduro in Venezuela. The United States condemned Russia for sending warplanes to Venezuela instead of humanitarian aid like the US is doing. The US had earlier deployed the USNS Comfort, a 1,000-bed hospital ship to South America to treat people affected by food shortages and epidemics.
“The Venezuelan government should be focusing on providing humanitarian assistance and aid to lessen the suffering of its people and not on Russian warplanes,” Pentagon spokesman U.S. Army Col. Rob Manning said last month.