The hostility against the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has had a new episode of violence. The leader was beaten and pushed out of a restaurant in San Carlos, capital of the llanero state of Cojedes, while on a tour of the interior of the country to promote the electoral strategy of the Unitarian Platform that supports him in the face of the 2024 presidential elections. It is the second incident in less than a week. The incident has been rejected by the international community, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Colombian President Iván Duque and the Organization of American States.
In Maracaibo, a few days ago, a political act also ended in a war of chairs. The struggle prevented him from taking a walk that he had planned. In both cases, Chavismo leaders have been singled out as the aggressors. But in the “ambush” this Saturday in Cojedes, Guaidó directly pointed to two deputies of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela before the National Assembly, Nosliw Rodríguez and Marcos Mendoza. “They are not going to take us off the streets, we are going to honor our commitment to achieve free elections. I’m moving forward, in no way are we going to go back,” the leader said in a broadcast on his social networks on Sunday night. “Fear is the dictatorship.” Maracaibo and San Carlos are the capitals of the states of Zulia and Cojedes, won by the opposition in the last November elections.
The tension has provoked a quick reaction from the international community that still supports Guaidó’s leadership, especially from Washington, where he is still considered interim president of Venezuela. “The United States is deeply concerned and condemns these acts of violence, harassment and intimidation against Interim President Guaidó and all those who defend democracy,” Blinken said. The Secretary General of the Organization of the United States Luis Almagro also expressed his condemnation of the aggression. “We condemn the attack on the interim president by collective assassins of the regime in Cojedes. His physical integrity must be respected. We repudiate any form of violence and political persecution carried out by the dictatorship. #OEAconVzla”, he wrote in a tweet. The governments of Colombia and Brazil also expressed their support for the opposition leader.
Venezuela has entered a new spiral of political confrontation and the government of Nicolás Maduro has once again turned against the opponents, after a few months of relative calm, certain political concessions and flexibility in the economic sphere, declarations of intent to resume negotiations in Mexico and granting of licenses to the European oil companies Eni and Repsol to return to the country and resume operations with the aim of paying off debts.
This week nine young people who were paying homage to Neomar Lander, one of the more than 150 killed during the repression of anti-government protests in 2017, the largest in recent years and five years old, were arrested. Militants of Leopoldo López’s party, Voluntad Popular, painted graffiti in memory of Lander on a Caracas avenue and were arrested by local police. From there they were taken to a military detention center, after spending more than 30 hours disappeared, without communication with relatives or lawyers. Five of the detainees were released without charge, as they were arrested when they were on a bus without having to do with the incident. The rest got out this weekend on parole.
The Venezuelan issue is boiling with the exclusion of the country, along with Nicaragua and Cuba, from the Summit of the Americas, which was held in Los Angeles this week. Mexico and Argentina raised their voices in rejection of the White House measure, which finally decided not to invite Guaidó either, and only dedicated 17 minutes to him in a call with Joe Biden before the official inauguration last Wednesday. Meanwhile, Maduro took the snub from the summit to strengthen what are his safest geopolitical relations and this week he toured Turkey, Algeria and Iran. With Tehran he signed a historic cooperation agreement for 20 years. During the signing, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisí highlighted “the exemplary resistance (of Venezuela) in the face of threats and sanctions from enemies and imperialism.”
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