Will US intervene in the crisis?
Maduro blocks humanitarian aid, snubs calls to step down
Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido refused Friday to rule out authorising US intervention to force President Nicolas Maduro’s hand in allowing in humanitarian aid and leaving power.
Guaido launched an audacious bid to oust Maduro last month, declaring himself acting president, a move recognised by the United States and some 40 countries, including 20 from the European Union.
National Assembly president Guaido told AFP he would do “everything that is necessary ... to save human lives,” although he acknowledged that American intervention is “a very controversial subject.”
Earlier, Maduro vowed not to let in “fake humanitarian aid” and claimed Venezuela’s crisis has been “fabricated by Washington” to justify intervention.
Under Maduro’s stewardship, Venezuela’s economy has collapsed leaving the country wracked by hyperinflation, recession and shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicine.
Guaido, 35, is trying to bring in aid from the US but the supplies are stuck in warehouses in Colombia because the Venezuelan military has blocked their entry.
“Venezuela won’t allow the spectacle of fake humanitarian aid because we’re no one’s beggars,” Maduro said at a press conference in Caracas.
Guaido says 300,000 people could die if desperately-needed aid isn’t brought in.
“We’re going to do everything that has a lower social cost, which generates governability and stability to deal with the emergency so we can recover public services,” he said.
Military dilemma
Venezuela frequently suffers from power cuts, a lack of running water and public transport, while there is also a shortage of doctors and medical supplies in hospitals.
But bringing in humanitarian aid is crucial to Guaido’s challenge to Maduro’s authority. Several trucks carrying food and medicine arrived at a collection centre in the Colombian border town of Cucuta on Thursday.
Venezuelan migrants gathered there to see if they could receive some aid.
However, on the other side of the Tienditas border bridge, Venezuelan troops loyal to Maduro had blocked the road, heightening tensions with Washington.
Guaido, who has appealed to the military to back him, said the armed forces “have a dilemma: either they side with the people in need or with the dictatorship.”
He has called for another street protest on Tuesday to keep up the pressure on Maduro, who is backed by China, Russia, Turkey and leftist regional allies Cuba and Bolivia.
Maduro, 56, blames shortages of food and medicine on US sanctions, which mostly target regime individuals as well as state oil company PDVSA.