Biodun.BBC: Juan Guaido

Showing posts with label Juan Guaido. Show all posts

Saturday, July 27, 2019

BREAKING: U.S. Marines 'likely' to enter Venezuela, says socialist party No. 2

July 28, 2019 08H:29 GMT/ZULU

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, CARACAS

CARACAS - Venezuelan Socialist Party Vice President Diosdado Cabello on Saturday predicted U.S. Marines will “likely” enter the South American country, speaking a week after a confrontation between aircraft belonging to the two countries’ armed forces.

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello takes part in a rally in support of President Nicolas Maduro's government and the Sao Paulo forum in Caracas, Venezuela, July 27, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero/File Photo

“We are few, a small country, we are very humble, and here it is likely that the U.S. Marines enter. It is likely that they enter,” Cabello told the Sao Paulo Forum, a gathering of leftist politicians and activists from across Latin America, without citing evidence.

“Their problem will be getting out of Venezuela.”

U.S.-Venezuela tensions have escalated this year since Juan Guaido, leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, arguing socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

The United States and most Western democracies have recognized Guaido as the rightful leader. The Trump administration has said it prefers to continue to use sanctions and diplomacy to pressure Maduro to step down, but has not ruled out military action as an option.

Cabello presides over the Constituent Assembly, a legislative superbody loyal to Maduro which is not recognized by the opposition. He is widely viewed as the second most powerful official in Venezuela’s government, after Maduro.

The U.S. military accused a Venezuelan fighter aircraft of “aggressively” shadowing a U.S. Navy plane in international airspace over the Caribbean Sea on July 19. Venezuela’s government said the “reconnaissance and intelligence aircraft” had entered its airspace.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cabello’s remarks.

The National Assembly this week approved Venezuela’s reentry into a regional defense treaty the country left in 2013. Opposition hardliners had pressured Guaido to re-join the treaty as a precursor to requesting foreign military assistance to oust Maduro, but Guaido has warned it was no “magic solution.”

Maduro retains control of state functions and calls Guaido a U.S. puppet seeking to oust him in a coup.

On Saturday, Maduro called the decision to rejoin the treaty “illegal” and “treasonous.” Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled the reincorporation was “null” and that efforts to invoke the treaty would be considered a “hostile act.”

Friday, May 17, 2019

Maduro government welcomes Norway 'dialogue' efforts

Date created : 18/05/2019 - 03:35 GMT/ZULU

The government of President Nicolas Maduro expressed gratitude to Norway and its support for "dialogue," after Maduro said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez was "on a very important mission for peace" in Europe Venezuelan Presidency/AFP

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Caracas

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24

The government of President Nicolas Maduro on Friday thanked Norway for its mediation efforts to build a "dialogue" with the Venezuelan opposition after both sides sent delegations to Oslo.

"President Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution express their gratitude to Norway and their support for dialogue for peace and sovereignty," Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted.

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It was the first official confirmation from Caracas of its involvement in what Norway referred to as exploratory discussions in Oslo.

The mediation bid comes after a months-long power struggle between National Assembly leader Juan Guaido and the socialist president, with sometimes deadly street clashes.

Maduro on Thursday made no direct reference to the meetings, but said Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez was "on a very important mission for peace in the country... in Europe".

So far details of the exact process underway in Oslo have been scant, but US-backed opposition leader Guaido -- recognized as interim president by dozens of countries -- denied on Thursday that any direct negotiations had taken place.

Norway's foreign ministry said in a statement it had had "preliminary contacts with representatives of the main political actors of Venezuela."

These were "part of an exploratory phase, with the aim of contributing to finding a solution to the situation in the country."

Rodriguez and Miranda state governor Hector Rodriguez represented the regime in the discussions, according to media reports.

The opposition said it was being represented by National Assembly vice president Stalin Gonzalez and former lawmaker Gerardo Blyde.

Maduro has been shunned by much of the international community for presiding over elections widely-dismissed as a sham and the oil-rich Latin American country's economic collapse as well as for brutally suppressing dissent.

Shortages of basic goods have forced millions to flee Venezuela.

Friday, March 8, 2019

BREAKING: Chaos as machines fail, patients die, in Venezuela blackout

Date created : 09/03/2019 - 0:441H50 GMT/ZULU

Commercial planes sit on the tarmac at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, in the state of Vargas, northern Venezuela, on March 8, 2019 during the worst power outage in the country's history AFP

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by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24, Caracas

Venezuela's nationwide blackout left large areas of the country in chaos on Friday, crippling day-to-day functioning of hospitals and other public services.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos at several hospitals as relatives tried to move patients in the dark to clinics with better emergency power facilities.

Marielsi Aray, a patient at the University Hospital suffering from an aggravated infection, died at dawn on Friday after her respirator stopped working, her uncle Jose Lugo said.

"The doctors tried to help her by pumping manually, they did everything they could, but with no electricity, what were they to do?" a distraught Lugo told us at France24.

Wiping away tears, he described how his niece had been brought to the bottom of the 11-story Caracas hospital on a stretcher after the elevators stopped working.

"They got her to the ground floor where they had electricity, and connected her up but because of the transfer and the waiting and everything, she faded away," he said.

The power cut compounded an atmosphere of chaos that has gripped the South American nation, already battered by economic collapse, since opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president in January and asserted that President Nicolas Maduro was no longer legitimate.

Lugo said another patient had died in the parking lot in the chaos of the blackout, as people "tried to get sick people out of here and move them to other places where they had generators and equipment that would work."

"The screaming was brutal," he said.

-Emergency generators fail-

Backup generators at the JM de Rios children's hospital in downtown Caracas failed to kick in when the blackout hit, said Gilbert Altuvez, whose eight-year-old boy is among the patients.

"The night was terrible. Without light. Total madness," he said.

When more generators were brought to supply emergency power, they weren't enough. "None managed to supply it completely," said Altuvez, 38.

Emilse Arellano said urgent dialysis for her youngest child had to be canceled Friday, after a night during which staff worked by the light of cellphones.

"The children were very scared," she told us at France24.

The putrid odor of rotting flesh hung around the entrance to Caracas' main Bello Monte morgue on Friday where the refrigeration system had stopped working.

Worried relatives gathered outside, waiting for bodies to be handed over so they could bury their dead.

"We can't take in any more corpses," an employee said on condition of anonymity.

Luis Moises Guerra had come to collect the body of his son, Johan, a gunshot victim killed three days ago.

"This is the second day I've spent here and now there is no light," said Guerra. "If they don't give me the body of my son today I'll leave it here and I won't come back anymore."

Guaido told supporters in Caracas it wasn't normal "that 50 percent of the hospitals in the country don't have electric plant" to be able to cope with such an emergency.

The National Assembly leader is recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries who agree that Maduro's re-election was illegitimate.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

BREAKING: Venezuela expels German ambassador for ‘interference’ in internal affairs

Date created : 07/03/2019 - 00:56GMT/ZULU

FEDERICO PARRA / AFP German ambassador to Venezuela Daniel Kriener after attending a meeting with Venezuela's opposition leader and self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido, at the National Assembly in Caracas, On February 19, 2019.

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24, Caracas

Venezuela's government expelled the German ambassador on Wednesday, while press advocacy groups said an American journalist had been detained, as embattled President Nicolas Maduro cracks down on a challenge to his rule.

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Ambassador Daniel Kriener was expelled two days after he and diplomats from other embassies welcomed home opposition leader Juan Guaido at the Caracas airport. The government declared Kriener persona non grata and gave him 48 hours to leave the country, accusing him of meddling in internal affairs, although it did not give specific details.

"Venezuela considers it unacceptable that a foreign diplomat carries out in its territory a public role closer to that of a political leader aligned with the conspiratorial agenda of extremist sectors of the Venezuelan opposition," the government said in a statement.

A German foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed Venezuela had expelled the ambassador and that the ministry was consulting with its allies on how to respond.

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Most Western countries, including Germany, recognize Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state and back his plan to install a transition government ahead of free elections. Guaido denounces Maduro as an usurper whose re-election last year resulted from a sham vote. Maduro says he is victim of a coup.

Kriener, along with ambassadors and diplomats from other European embassies, had gone to the airport on Monday to support Guaido, who had risked arrest on his return to Venezuela for flouting a court-imposed travel ban to visit other Latin American countries.

On Monday, the embassy said on its Twitter account that Kriener hoped Guaido's return "was a step towards a peaceful and political process to overcome the Venezuelan crisis."

Separately, Venezuela's National Press Workers Union said on Twitter that American journalist Cody Weddle was arrested at his home on Wednesday by military counterintelligence agents. Espacio Publico, a free speech group, said he had been accused of treachery and that the agents took his computer and equipment.

WPLG Local 10 News, a Miami television station that Weddle contributed to, reported on its website that management attempts to reach Weddle "have proven unsuccessful" and that his last contact with station employees was on Monday afternoon.

Neither Venezuela's information ministry nor the U.S. State Department immediately responded to requests for comment.

Last week, Venezuela deported a team from U.S. television network Univision after anchor Jorge Ramos said authorities detained them at the presidential palace.