Nations recognise Venezuela’s opposition
CARACAS: Venezuela’s top military envoy to the United States defected from the government of President Nicolas Maduro yesterday, as the South American nation said the two countries had scaled back their diplomatic missions to skeleton staff.
The diplomatic friction and defection was triggered by US recognition of opposition leader Juan Guaido (pictured at right) as Venezuela’s interim president. Washington, Canada and most Latin American nations said Maduro’s secondterm election win was fraudulent.
‘‘Today I speak to the people of Venezuela, and especially to my brothers in the armed forces of the nation, to recognise President Juan Guaido as the only legitimate president,’’ Colonel Jose Luis Silva said in a video recorded at the embassy in Washington, seated at a desk alongside the Venezuelan flag.
‘‘The top brass of the military and the executive branch are holding the armed forces hostage. There are many, many who are unhappy,’’ Silva said. ‘‘My message to the armed forces is, ‘Don’t mistreat your people.’ We were given arms to defend the sovereignty of our nation. They never, never trained us to say, ‘This is for you to attack your people, to defend the current government in power’.’’
Major European countries threw their weight behind Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday, saying they would recognise him as interim president if Nicolas Maduro failed to call elections within eight days.
Britain, Germany, France and Spain all said they would recognise Guaido unless fresh elections were announced.
Venezuela has sunk into turmoil under Maduro, with food shortages and daily protests amid an economic and political crisis that has sparked mass emigration and inflation that is seen rising to 10,000,000% this year.
The US urged the United Nations Security Council on Saturday to recognise Guaido as the country’s president to replace Maduro, but Russia quickly voiced strong opposition to such action.
At an emergency session called by the US, Moscow and Washington clashed over what the Trump administration called as a return to democracy, and Russia labelled an illegal coup that meddled in a sov ereign nation’s domestic affairs.
Guaido welcomed Silva in a tweet and encouraged others to follow his example.