The streets of Caracas were flooded with thousands of protesters on Saturday as citizens of Venezuela came out en masse to support the opposition’s call for early elections and mount pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step down.
In an attempt to assuage protesters and dampen calls from the international community concerning this, The Telegraph reports that “Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said he was prepared to hold negotiations with the US-backed opposition but ruled out early presidential elections.
“I am ready to sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition so that we could talk for the good of Venezuela,” Maduro told [a] Russian state news agency in an interview in Caracas.”
Last week, the United States of America through its Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, demanded that the world stand with the forces of freedom in Venezuela. During a special session of the United Nations Security Council, Pompeo noted that Venezuela was in an economic crisis because of President Maduro, hinting that the rest of the world should recognise Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate president.
In response to this, “four major European countries – Britain, Germany, Britain, France and Spain – said on Saturday they are ready to recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president if elections are not called within eight days.”
Joining America’s stance on the matter, the British Foreign Secretary noted, on Twitter:
1/2 After banning opposition candidates, ballot box stuffing and counting irregularities in a deeply flawed election it is clear Nicolas Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) January 26, 2019
2/2 @jguaido is the right person to take Venezuela forward. If there are not fresh & fair elections announced within 8 days UK will recognise him as interim President to take forward the political process towards democracy. Time for a new start for the suffering ppl of Venezuela— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) January 26, 2019
For Maduro, the military’s support for his deeply unpopular rule is crucial. Unfortunately, a senior Air Force general publicly disavowed him on Saturday and proclaimed his support for Jose Guaido, the opposition leader and head of the country’s national assembly.
Addressing the calls for another election at a pro-government rally recently, Maduro declared: “You want elections? You want early elections? We are going to have parliamentary elections…There is no dictatorship in Venezuela, nor will there be.”
The Economic Times reports that “in a speech to supporters, Maduro said the powerful government-controlled Constituent Assembly [will] debate calling elections this year for the National Assembly parliament, which is opposition-controlled.
However, an opposition lawmaker, Armando Armas, has noted in a statement that proposing bringing forward the parliamentary elections, which were scheduled for 2020, was just another act of provocation, noting that the Constituent Assembly has no real power in the country.
Venezuela has been embroiled in protests for months after Maduro was re-elected in a widely-disputed election last spring.
