RTWed, 23 Jan 2019 19:23 UTC
One voice, one mission!
US President Donald Trump has recognized Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president in a provocative move against the elected government of Nicolas Maduro.
"Today, I am officially recognizing the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela," Trump said in statement.
He called the Maduro government
"illegitimate" and "
directly responsible for any threats" posed to the Venezuelan people.
He added he would use "
the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy" and encouraged other governments in the Western Hemisphere to also recognize Guaido.
In a tweet, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Guaido's decision to declare himself interim president was
"courageous" and said the US would support his efforts to "
establish a transitional government" and prepare for "f
ree and fair" elections.
US-backed Guaido, who is currently the President of the National Assembly, swore an oath and declared himself interim president on Monday as thousands took to the streets calling for Maduro to leave office.
Trump has steadily expanded economic sanctions against Venezuela in recent months while declaring steadfast support for the Venezuelan people. The sanctions have been heavily criticized by many analysts who say that the Venezuelan people are the ones who sanctions will hurt most.
Earlier this week, Maduro had called for a revision of Venezuela's diplomatic relations with the US after
Vice President Mike Pence openly called for regime change in the struggling country.
Maduro said the US was shamelessly interfering in his country's domestic affairs and rejected its "
imperialist interventionism" which he said promoted
"instability and violence."
Comment: In situations like this, there's no distinction to be made between 'the Trump government' and 'the deep state'. They're all acting as one to one agenda: the US imperial agenda. Even Twitter - bashed for being 'communist' in other contexts - is on Trump's side here,
banning Maduro's presidential comms from the platform.
Besides these messages of pro-coup support from Washington, in just the last week Venezuelan military units have been apprehended
for attempting to get an insurrection going, while this pretender to the throne - Guaido - has apparently
staged a fake arrest to further whip up popular support.
It doesn't matter whether non-Venezuelans believe Maduro is evil incarnate - he's
NOT YOUR PRESIDENT.
Americans, TRUMP is your president. Is more illegal breaches of other countries' constitutional orders what you voted him into office for??
UPDATES - 23:00 CETVenezuela has
broken off formal diplomatic relations with the US.
The Venezuelan military - its defence minister anyway - has
disavowed Guaido's power-grab, saying they "will not accept a president imposed by dark interests."
American film-maker Mike Prysner - who has reported from Venezuela on multiple occasions - reminds his followers that the opposition's supporters includes violent terrorists:
Brazil's new leader Bolsonaro, clearly working in coordination with the US and allied regional governments,
has joined Trump in 'recognizing' the opposition leader as Venezuela's 'legitimate' president.
Wikileaks meanwhile points out that this political maneuver from abroad
risks plunging Venezuela into civil war. Which means massive dislocation of people, which means more mass migration...
UPDATE - 24 Jan 08:00 CETFollowing in lock-step, the unelected bureaucrats of the EU have
thrown their support behind pretender Juan Guaido.
European Union has sided with "democratic forces" in Venezuela, backing the self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido over the elected government of Nicolas Maduro.
Meanwhile, the unelected EU High Representative for foreign policy, Federica Mogherini, likewise declared her support for Guaido's self-proclaimed government, in language strangely reminiscent of EU support extended to Ukraine's coup in 2014.
"Violence and the excessive use of force by security forces are completely unacceptable, and will for sure not resolve the crisis. The Venezuelan people have the right to peacefully demonstrate, to freely chose [sic] its leaders and decide its future," Mogherini said in a statement.
While Venezuelans appear at best divided between Guaido and Maduro, Washington has taken upon itself to declare which government in Caracas is legitimate, throwing its support behind leader of the National Assembly, which was last elected in 2015 and - according to Maduro - replaced by the 2017 Constitutional Assembly.
US allies have followed suit, with most OAS members, Canada, France and now the EU backing Guaido.
Maduro has given US diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, but Guaido has called on them to stay, setting the stage for a possible diplomatic confrontation. Venezuela's military has sided with Maduro.
BBC, NYT, DW, CNN... it's a war dance of presstitutes.