Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro giving a speech during a political rally. Photo: Presidential Press/File photo.
This Saturday, October 8, in an opinion piece published by former New York Times (NYT) correspondent in Venezuela, William Neuman acknowledged that the only one who governs Venezuela is President Nicolás Maduro, whether the US likes it or not.
Recently, the US released two Venezuelans being held in US jails, EfraĂn Antonio Campo and Francisco Flores de Freitas, which the author considered an “incoherence of US policy towards Venezuela,” by Joe Biden’s administration. He added that, “even as it negotiates with Mr. Maduro, the White House continues to insist that Juan GuaidĂł, an opposition politician, is the real president of Venezuela.”
He also recalled that since 2019, Washington broke diplomatic relations with Caracas, when the US embassy was closed in the Venezuelan capital. This happened after former president Donald Trump recognized Juan GuaidĂł as “interim” president of Venezuela. In this regard, the former New York Times reporter suggested that, “it is time for the Biden administration to accept that the GuaidĂł gambit has failed and that most Venezuelans, and most of the international community, have moved on.”
At the same time, Neuman stressed that, “the White House needs a Venezuela policy based on fact, not fiction. And the fact is that Mr. Maduro is president of Venezuela and Mr. GuaidĂł is not.”
In his article, the right-wing journalist also recognized the little international support that former deputy GuaidĂł currently has: “Today, only a dwindling handful continue to recognize Mr. GuaidĂł as Venezuela’s president.” He added that, “GuaidĂł was always president in name only — he had no government and no power to act inside Venezuela.”
Then Neumann mentioned the 180-degree change of approach of Colombia towards Venezuela after the victory of Gustavo Petro, adding that Brazil might be next in line with the imminent victory of Luis Ignacio Lula Da SIlva in the upcoming second round of the presidential elections.
He also made a few additional statements that were relevant, which he wouldn’t have mentioned a few months ago as most US liberal and right-wing White House stenographers were still pushing for the now-failed GuaidĂł experiment:
• Mr. Guaidó’s claim to an alternate presidency rested on his role as head of the National Assembly, but his legislative term ended last year, and at that point many of his supporters inside and outside of Venezuela gave up on the notion.
• Today, Mr. Maduro is stronger than he was three years ago, and the opposition is in disarray.
• Dropping the pretense that Mr. Guaidó is president would set U.S. policy on a rational foundation but would not be an endorsement of Mr. Maduro.
• Venezuelans are fed up with opposition parties that often seem more interested in fighting with each other than in improving the country’s fortunes.
• But by continuing to uphold the fiction that Mr. Guaidó is president of Venezuela, the administration makes it harder for the opposition to go through the necessary process of reforming itself.
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Neumann’s comments should not in any way be interpreted as an endorsement or support of Chavismo and President Maduro, it is just the logical conclusions after years of circus-like US interventionist operations against Venezuela that was recently ratified at full splendor during Antony Blinken’s Latin American tour, when he visited Colombia, Chile and Peru.
(RedRadioVE) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/DD
