European MPs expelled as aid showdown intensifies

CARACAS: Venezuela on Sunday expelled five visiting European lawmakers, an act which opposition leader Juan Guaido branded “irrational” as his showdown with President Nicolas Maduro over the arrival of international aid intensifies.

The members of the European Parliament were being tossed out with no explanation, said Spanish MEP Esteban Gonzalez Pons, who led the group.

The incident is the latest point of tension between the international community and Maduro, who is in the grip of a power struggle with Guaido, the head of the National Assembly.

Pons’s compatriots, Jose Ignacio Salafranca and Gabriel Mato Adrover, as well as Esther de Lange of the Netherlands and Paulo Rangel of Portugal, were also expelled.

Earlier, Guaido set a goal of enlisting a million volunteers within a week to confront a government blockade that has kept tonnes of humanitarian aid, most of it from the United States, from flowing into the country.