The Brazilian president expresses his support for Juan Guaido, together with Venezuelan opponents, members of the Lima Group and representatives of the United States and of the OAS.
“We will do everything so that democracy in Venezuela is restored and that you (the Venezuelans) can live in freedom (…) I think the solution will come soon,” Bolsonaro announced in a short video broadcast on Thursday after the meeting, called by his own Government in the presidential palace of Planalto, in Brasilia.
The main proposal presented by the opponents of the Bolivarian Republic was the recognition of the new president of the opposition National Assembly (AN) of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, as “legitimate and temporary president” of the country, according to the former mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma.
The opposition leader added that Guaidó is the legitimate president of the country “by force of the Venezuelan Constitution” and asked Brazil and the entire international community to recognize him instead of Nicolás Maduro, winner in May last year of the presidential elections.
Ledezma made these statements with another participant in the meeting, the former president of the AN Julio Borges, days after the same AN approved “formally declaring the usurpation of the Presidency” by Maduro, who however ensures that he will continue his mandate, It has the support of the people and the military.
In the same way, the former mayor of Caracas asked the countries of the Lima Group to apply a series of economic sanctions to the “hierarchs of the Maduro regime”. The regional bloc decided early in January not to recognize the new mandate of the Venezuelan head of state.
Maduro defended his new presidential term on Thursday, on his seventh day, and explained what opponents should do, according to the country’s National Constitution, to reach power.
“If they (the opposition) want the Presidency of the Republic, they postulate their candidates in the next election (presidential, in 2024) and win us with votes, as we have always won. Only the people rule in Venezuela,” proclaimed the president.
mtk / mla / tmv / alg
Translated by JRE/AR
