Featured image: Venezuelan far-right politician Diego Arria (center left) escorted by then US ambassador to the United Nations Nikkey Alley (left) and Organization of American States Secretary Luis Almagro (right) after a Security Council meeting on Venezuela in 2017. Photo: X/@maiborpetit/file photo.
Far-right Venezuelan politician based in New York, Diego Arria, blamed the United States government for the evident failures of Venezuela’s opposition, saying that the US has not taken the situation in Venezuela seriously.
Arria referred to Venezuela as “a destructive force in Latin America and beyond.” He went on to criticize the US for sending President Biden’s former Security Advisor for Latin America Juan González to Venezuela to manage the situation in the country whereas, for similar issues on the other side of the world, the US frequently sends its CIA director or the secretary of state.
“It is easier to say that Juan González is to blame,” said Arria. “No! It is the US government that is responsible. They have never known how to ‘guide’ our process.”
Juan González was the representative of the United States in the last two years of negotiations with Venezuela; however, he resigned from his position as the main advisor for Latin America to the US president on February 13.
González will leave office in March of this year and will subsequently be replaced by the current assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs in the US Department of State, Daniel Erikson.
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Juan González tried to achieve political change in Venezuela, promoting illegal sanctions, and trying to impose María Corina Machado as a candidate for the next presidential elections, despite her disqualification from holding public office in Venezuela.
However, these strategies failed, and González left his post before fulfilling his purpose. Before he left office, Gonzalez positions appeared to undergo a complete reversal. In one of his final statements, during a meeting with Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, Gonzalez stated that the most important issue in the presidential elections in Venezuela was “ the process and not the candidate.”
Furthermore, Gonzalez stated that it was important for Venezuela to continue on its electoral path and to maintain what was signed in the Barbados Agreement.
For Venezuelan authorities, the Barbados Agreement was breached by the US government and the opposition by organizing terrorist plots to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro and by not recognizing the Supreme Court ruling that ratified the disqualification of María Corina Machado from running for office in the upcoming presidential elections.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
