Opposition in Venezuela weakens when Biden takes office

Mr. Maduro has said publicly that his government is willing to enter into talks with the US, although past attempts to mediate a dialogue have failed.

An official in President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team said he did not intend to meet with Mr. Maduro did not negotiate, adding that he had no communication with the Venezuelan government.

“Elected President Biden was clear throughout the campaign and during the transition that he believes Maduro is a dictator and that Biden’s government will stand with the Venezuelan people and their call for a restoration of democracy through free and fair elections, “he said.

The US, the official added, will seek multilateral pressure on Mr. To build up Maduro, to call for the release of political prisoners, to impose sanctions on Venezuelan officials guilty of corruption and human rights violations, and to grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans living in the country. USA

As Maduro tightens his grip on Congress, the country’s opposition will soon get another blow. Some remaining opposition lawmakers near Guaidó plan to flee the country, fearing jail time if they stay in Venezuela, according to opposition activists. With no powers or control over territory, this is what Mr. Guaidó and his team call it an interim government, now just more than a virtual entity making pro-democracy statements through social media and Zoom. The Trump administration said it was calling for Mr. Guaidó is still considered the only democratically elected leader of Venezuela.

With many of the opposition leaders now outside Venezuela, Mr. Guaidó is increasingly isolated and lives in an apartment in Caracas with his wife and little daughter, wondering if the secret police will arrest him.

While Mr. Biden preparing to be inaugurated as US president on January 20, Venezuelan opposition leaders have said they are moving away from strategies to incite an uprising to Mr. To force Maduro to power. Instead, they said they would lean more towards finding a way to alleviate food and medicine shortages in a country with economic disaster. A third of Venezuelans do not have access to three meals a day, according to the UN World Food Program. About half endure daily power outages as they struggle to cope with annual inflation by nearly 12,000%, according to the Caracas business consulting firm Ecoanalítica.

Since the US in January 2019 for the first time Mr. Guaidó recognized as the interim president of Venezuela, Washington imposed oil and financial sanctions and international support for a move to oust Mr. Maduro overthrown, sharpened. This attempt failed.

Now many opposition activists, as well as former advisers to President Trump, say change is needed.

“The whole interim government scheme of Guaidó has probably survived his life,” said Juan Cruz, who had previously advised the White House on Venezuela’s policies. He said the US should reconsider its broad sanctions, which apply to state-owned enterprises and figures accused of corruption and human rights violations.

“January is a new day for many players: the opposition, the US government and even the regime,” he said. Cruz said.

Mr. Guaidó, in a recent video address on Twitter, tried to instill confidence in his movement by ensuring that it is united and will lead the country to free elections. “The dictatorship is not going to leave willingly, so we have to let them go,” he said.

He called on supporters to march in the streets on Tuesday while Maduro’s allies sat in the National Assembly. He also called on Venezuelan delegates in other countries to push for host countries to put pressure on Mr. To increase Maduro.

But he suggested little else. And in Venezuela, most Venezuelans in the economic collapse and imprisonment are gaining access to scarce running water and fuel rather than thinking of protest actions.

“You have lost the ability to mobilize people,” said Luis Vicente León, a political analyst who led the Caracas poll Datanálisis. “Today, there is no one pushing Maduro in Venezuela – no political negotiations, no election participation or protests. The result is the complete pulverization of the opposition. ”

In a recent poll, Datanálisis found that only 25% of respondents said they hoped for a democratic transition in the country. Ecoanalítica estimates that the economy will shrink by 23% in 2020 after shrinking by 40% a year earlier.

Hopelessness in the country will increase the outflow of desperate Venezuelans, who now total five million. The Organization of American States estimates that by the end of 2021, the number of Venezuelan migrants could rise to seven million, more than the number of Syrians fleeing the country’s brutal war.

The political disagreement complicates the search for solutions to the humanitarian crisis. Opposition legislators who met with Mr. Guaidó has recently approved a resolution on a Zoom video conference asking them to continue after Tuesday, after the end of their five-year congressional terms. They argued that the elections Maduro held last month were illegal, as were the US and many other countries.

Mr. Maduro said in a recent speech that he would impose any lawmakers trying to extend their mandate. “I will not be afraid to act violently to enforce the law,” the left-wing leader shouted in the televised speech, flanked by the military command.

But Mr. Guaidó also faces rifts within his own movement. Democratic action, one of the most important political parties in the opposition coalition, lost some of the vote on the retention of Mr. Guaidó as abbot of the abstention. Some lawmakers have said they have lost confidence in his team.

Oscar Ronderos, a Democratic action legislator, described the current opposition movement as an interim government that does not exist, in a national assembly that no one serves. ‘

“It makes little sense to continue the Guaidó-led movement after January 5,” he said.

According to opposition lawmakers, the movement’s internal disagreement could further jeopardize its credibility, especially among European Union countries negotiating with the regime to allow humanitarian aid and later an agreement on free elections.

In recent weeks, the Maduro regime has shown its repression by arbitrarily detaining the directors of organizations that supply food to poor Venezuelans and sentencing six former Citgo executives to long prison terms. The U.S. government has said the drivers – five of whom are U.S. citizens – are being held unfairly.

“Instead of building trust, it disappears trust,” Cruz said.

Julio Borges, who serves from exile in Colombia as the highest diplomat for Mr. Guaidó’s movement, said he expected the US and its allies would not be easy for Maduro.

“The most important thing for the democratic struggle in Venezuela is that Maduro is still unable to stabilize the country or increase its popularity,” he said. Borges said.

—Ginette Gonzalez in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this article.

Write to Kejal Vyas by [email protected]