Venezuelan FM Jorge Arreaza: Guaido coup attempt was 'directly planned in Washington'

RT
Tue, 30 Apr 2019 17:22 UTC

© Reuters / Jim Young

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido's associate Carlos Alfredo Vecchio leaves a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC in January 2019

The Venezuelan foreign minister has accused the US-backed opposition of planning Tuesday's coup attempt in Washington, and said the government would work to keep the peace.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told Reuters by telephone that only around 30 soldiers had supported the coup instigated by opposition leader Juan Guaido. He described the plot as "another chapter" of an American effort to topple the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

While downplaying the scale of the uprising, Arreaza said it did not originate within the military, but that opposition leaders planned the event in Washington.

"It is not a coup attempt from the military. This is directly planned in Washington, in the Pentagon and Department of State, and by [National Security Adviser John] Bolton," Arreaza told Reuters.

"They are leading this coup and giving orders to this man Guaido," he said.

Bolton, a long-time major backer of the Venezuelan opposition, went public on Tuesday with his support for the coup attempt, pledging that "the United States stands with the people of Venezuela" while slamming Maduro's "usurpation of democracy."

Speaking to RT Spanish earlier on Tuesday, Arreaza said that "916,050 square kilometers" -nearly the whole of Venezuela- is under the Maduro government's control, except for "one small bridge and a highway near the military airbase" where Guaido-led opposition and a group of military supporting him are located.

He added that he's aware that Guaido is already under investigation, but said he could not comment on what steps the judiciary would take next.

Comment: Russia condemned the media for acting as 'tool's promoting the violence in Venezuela:

The media shouldn't turn into a tool for forces seeking to escalate the situation in Venezuela by spreading fake news, the Russian Foreign Ministry said accusing the opposition of resorting to violence in the ongoing coup attempt.

"Objective" reporting is of the "utmost importance" for Venezuela, the ministry said in a statement as it called on the media around the world to avoid spreading false reports that would only make the situation on the ground worse. This serves the agenda of those players who want to plunge the Latin American nation into chaos, it said.

Moscow then accused the US-backed Venezuelan opposition led by the self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, of a brazen attempt to draw the armed forces into clashes and use the unfolding chaos to seize power.

"The radical opposition in Venezuela has once again returned to violent methods of confrontation," the ministry said. "Instead of peacefully settling political differences, they have taken a course designed to whip up conflict, and provoke breaches of public order and clashes involving the armed forces."

The Foreign Ministry also called on all sides of the political conflict inside Venezuela to stop violence and avoid bloodshed as it urged the international community to encourage all "responsible" forces in Venezuela to return to dialogue to resolve their differences.