The State Department’s top official on Venezuela said Tuesday that the Trump administration will continue recognizing lawmaker Juan Guaidó as the nation’s interim president even if President Nicolás Maduro's government ousts the opposition from control of congress — its last major stronghold.
“He will not change the legal status for many countries around the world — and especially for us,” Trump’s special representative to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams told the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations in a hearing on Venezuela Tuesday.
Maduro’s government has set a Dec. 6 election to renew the National Assembly. As the body’s leader, Guaidó last year claimed the nation’s presidency, arguing that Maduro's reelection had been fraudulent, in part because top opposition figures had been banned.
State Department Special Representative for Venezuela Ambassador Elliott Abrams appears before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
Guaidó and more than two dozen opposition parties recently announced they will boycott the vote, saying Maduro's government has already manipulated the process, in part by imposing new leaders on the key parties allowed to take part, making the upcoming election a “fraud.” Their elected term will end in the first week of January.
“In our view the constitutional president of Venezuela today and after Jan. 5, 2021 is Juan Guaidó,” Abrams said.
The U.S. is among more than 50 nations that have recognized Guaidó as interim leader, saying the nation’s presidency is vacant because Maduro’s rule is illegitimate.
State Department Special Representative for Venezuela Ambassador Elliott Abrams testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
However, 18 months later, Maduro remains in control of the nation with backing from key international allies like Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. He also has backing from Venezuela’s military.
U.S. lawmakers gave scathing criticism of how the U.S. handled efforts to help Venezuela cast off Maduro’s authoritative government and return the once-wealthy oil nation to democratic rule.
“Our Venezuela policy over the last year and a half has been an unmitigated disaster,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. “If we aren’t honest about that, then we can’t self-correct.”
State Department Special Representative for Venezuela Ambassador Elliott Abrams prepares to testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
Murphy said the rushed U.S. policy has allowed Maduro to label Guaidó an “American patsy” while hardening Russian and Cuban backing of Maduro.
An estimated 5 million Venezuelans have fled shortages of gasoline, food and a broken healthcare system that is showing signs of buckling as the new coronavirus surges.
State Department Special Representative for Venezuela Ambassador Elliott Abrams takes off his mask to testify at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. (AP PhotoAndrew Harnik)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A few weeks ago, Edmundo González Urrutia was just another grandfather visiting his daughter and grandchildren, who live abroad, enjoying two months of family time in retirement. But the leisurely pace - and the anonymity - will have to wait as he now campaigns to become Venezuela’s next president.
President is not a title González ever sought. “Never,” he emphatically told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday at his apartment in his country’s capital, Caracas.
In the whirlwind world of Venezuelan politics, the former ambassador is now crucial to efforts to oust President Nicolás Maduro as the main opposition faction's presidential candidate.
“I have never held an elected position. I have never participated in partisan politics of positions of elected office,” he said. “I accepted it with enormous responsibility and as a contribution on my part to the democratization of the country, to the process of trying to seek the understanding, reconciliation, of Venezuelans.”
González became the opposition Unitary Platform's candidate last month after former lawmaker María Corina Machado, who easily won the group’s presidential primary last year, and her handpicked alternative were banned from registering. The coalition’s leaders selected him 15 days after he returned from vacation, and he accepted under a few conditions, including that his wife be convinced of the decision.
The July 28 election will have 10 candidates, but apart from the Unitary Platform, none are expected to pose a threat to Maduro’s power base. Maduro officially launched his candidacy in March for a third term that would last until 2031.
Machado has been campaigning for more than a year, including after Venezuela’s ruling party-loyal top court affirmed an administrative decision blocking her candidacy. She recently began instructing supporters gathered by the thousands at rallies to vote for González, but he is yet to appear before crowds. He said he plans to kick off his campaign later this month and explained that Machado and other opposition leaders will continue to host events around the country.
“The important thing about this is the enthusiasm with which it is happening,” he said of people’s support, which comes after years of calls from the opposition for election boycotts and a sense of general apathy from voters who were repeatedly disappointed by the faction’s earlier promises of change. “Those feelings of joy – of a democratic party at its core – are awakening.”
Asked what role Machado would have in his government should he win, González said it was “premature to think what position she is going to take." What matters at the moment, he said, is that Machado and the Unitary Platform are “rowing in the same direction.”
Machado is not a member of the platform, but she was allowed to participate in its Oct. 22 primary, which she won with more than 90% of support.
Even among Venezuela’s opposition, few have heard of the 74-year-old former diplomat. González began his professional career as an aide to Venezuela’s ambassador in the U.S. He had postings in Belgium and El Salvador and served as Caracas’ ambassador to Algeria.
His last post was as Venezuela’s ambassador to Argentina during the first years of Hugo Chávez’s presidency. More recently, he worked as an international relations consultant, writing about recent political developments in Argentina as well as authoring a historical work on Venezuela’s foreign minister during World War II.
His years in El Salvador and Algeria coincided with periods of armed conflicts in both countries. For a time, his whereabouts were tracked by locals in El Salvador, and he would get calls at home meant to intimidate him, with the callers saying they were aware that González had just gotten home.
Although those countries’ conditions were entirely different from Venezuela’s current political situation, they have prepared González for the unique stress that can come with being a candidate or political leader in the South American country, where real and perceived government adversaries, including campaign staffers of Machado, have been detained, threatened and charged ahead of the election.
Maduro's government has cracked down on the opposition despite promises to pave the way to fair elections in exchange for relief from economic sanctions imposed by the United States last decade as democratic and human rights conditions deteriorated in Venezuela. The recent moves prompted the Biden administration to re-impose crushing oil sanctions last month.
“They are situations that teach one to live in stressful situations, in dangerous situations, in risky situations, in situations where personal insecurity is evident,” he said of his experiences in El Salvador and Algeria. “So yes, in that sense they are experiences that help you manage, function, in an environment that is complicated and difficult.”
Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the alliance that brings together the main parties and leaders of the opposition, during an interview at his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the alliance that brings together the main parties and leaders of the opposition, speaks during an interview at his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the alliance that brings together the main parties and leaders of the opposition, poses for a photo during an interview at his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the alliance that brings together the main parties and leaders of the opposition, pauses during an interview at his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the alliance that brings together the main parties and leaders of the opposition, speaks during an interview at his home in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
