President of Mexico Questions US Interest in Venezuela and Support for Guaidó

On Wednesday, April 13, during his daily morning conference, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) commented that the United States has now shoved self-proclaimed “interim president” of Venezuela Juan Guaidó aside, after previously having given him full support. Now, the government of President Joe Biden is changing its stance and seeking the help of the government of Venezuela headed by President Nicolás Maduro.

AMLO remarked that, as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US has sought the help of Venezuela in order to solve its domestic oil supply and demand.

Y donde queda el pendejo @jguaido, que fue aplaudido por republicanos y demócratas en el congreso gringo, ante este nuevo escenario de crisis mundial?
Que te lo cuente @lopezobrador_ pic.twitter.com/70Lxp2afap
— JEéz💤( Z )._ (@JEez_Pz) April 15, 2022

The president of Mexico, commenting on the love of money of the national and international ruling classes, mentioned the smear campaign against Venezuela as an example. “They [the US and the ruling classes] have no ideology, they only have interests, their God is money,” he said. “I am going to give an example: the case of Venezuela. They said horrors about Venezuela, the worst about Venezuela.”

AMLO continued that, during the time of the smear campaign against Venezuela and its constitutional government of Nicolás Maduro, former deputy Juan Guaidó was invited to the US Congress to attend Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. At the time, both Democrat and Republican legislators gave Guaidó a standing ovation.

However, two years after that episode, the US now wants to sign an agreement with the government of President Maduro, a government the US authorities had previously disdained in favor of Guaidó, so that Chevron might extract a million barrels of oil per day in Venezuela.

“All of a sudden,” said López Obrador, “an agreement with Venezuela so that an oil company, Chevron, can extract one million barrels a day from Venezuela. So, what was the fight? Where is Guiadó now? What was it that prevailed and what is above all? Their own [economic] interests.”

https://twitter.com/rafmuor/status/1515067883402969100

It is worth mentioning here that there has been no such agreement with Chevron, although in late March many media outlets published articles to this effect after a US government delegation met President Maduro in Caracas. The US government appears reluctant to lift the sanctions imposed on Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, and with the sanctions in place, no US oil company will be able to operate in Venezuela except carrying out limited maintenance of essential operations or closing of existing operations.

The meeting came after the US government sanctioned Moscow as a response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and that led to an increase in gasoline prices in the US. Then the US had to look for other options to solve this situation.

The meeting between a high-level US commission and representatives of the Venezuelan government took place in Caracas. After that, the Venezuelan government as well as some sectors of the opposition requested a withdrawal of sanctions so that foreign oil companies could, once again, operate in Venezuela.

The meeting was not well received by the extreme right in Venezuela, including Juan Guaidó, who demanded the US not to strengthen ties with the legitimate government of Venezuela. Such statements were branded as irresponsible by the general secretary of the Comité de Organización Electoral Independiente party (COPEI), Juan Carlos Alvarado.

The rapprochement was also repudiated by US Senator Marco Rubio, who pointed out that these talks would be a hard blow to the Venezuelan opposition movement.

Featured image: President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Photo: Government of Mexico.

(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/GMS/SC