Trump 'Considering Recognizing' Venezuela Opposition Leader as President in Radical Move to Push Regime Change

By Chris Riotta, The Independent

18 January 19

The possible move arrives as Latin American nations disavow Nicolas Maduro's allegedly fraudulent re-election

onald Trump is said to be considering recognising opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president, increasing the pressure on Nicolas Maduro as he begins a second term amid international condemnation.

Venezuela’s opposition-run Congress has announced it will reject any actions taken by Mr Maduro, calling him a “usurper” with no legitimate claim to governance. The move arrives as countries in Latin America disavow the president’s re-election in a vote that saw low-turnout and hundeds of allegations of election law violations.

Mr Guaido is the president of Venezuela’s elected National Assembly and has recently invoked Article 233, demanding a free and fair election.

That decision was supported by the White House, with National Security Adviser John Bolton saying in a statement the US backed “the courageous decision of the National Assembly President, Juan Guaido, to invoke protections under Venezuela’s constitution and declare that Maduro does not legitimately hold the country's presidency.“

Vice President Mike Pence has also rejected Mr Maduro’s second term, decrying the Venezuelan president as a “dictator with no legitimate claim to power” after his swearing in earlier this month.

The declaration from Congress calls for a “political transition” to a new government.

“Today Congress declares that at this time there is no president of the republic,” Jorge Millan, an opposition legislator, said in a speech. “Let's start the process to recover the constitutional order,” he said.

The Congress also prroved a measure asking dozens of foreign governments to freeze bank accounts controlled by Mr Maduro's government.

Congress has requested governments instruct regulatory agencies to “prohibit any movement of liquid assets by the Venezuelan state in local bank accounts”.

The governments include the United States, European Union, and Latin American neighbors such as Chile and Brazil. The United States and EU have already imposed sanctions that limit the sale of Venezuelan government debt and freeze assets belonging to Maduro and a number of his top officials.

Asked if further sanctions could be in the pipeline, a White House spokesman said the United States was considering “all diplomatic, political, and economic tools in its arsenal in response to the usurpation of power by the illegitimate Maduro regime.”

The United States and many Latin American nations say Mr Maduro has become a dictator whose failed state-led policies have plunged Venezuela into its worst ever economic crisis, with no recovery in sight.

Mr Maduro says that a US-directed “economic war” is trying to force him from power and has defended his re-election, saying last week, “We're a real democracy and I, Nicolas Maduro Moros, I am a truly democratic president.”