(Caracas) Venezuelan opponent Juan Guaidó said Thursday that the “interim government” should remain in place even if he is no longer its president, while three opposition parties want it gone.
This alternative government and presidency was created in 2019 when the opposition to Nicolas Maduro and the international community refused to recognize the re-election of the heir to Hugo Chavez. Without real powers, however, they control Venezuelan assets abroad.
“My proposal is that the institution be defended above names or personal interests and that this tool not be destroyed,” Guaidó said in a video posted on social media.
The opposition has been debating its deletion since Wednesday.
Three of the four major opposition parties want it removed as Voluntad Popular, the party of Mr Guaidó and exiled opponent Leopoldo Lopez, believes ending the caretaker presidency would allow President Maduro to regain control of resources Venezuelan women blocked abroad by sanctions and controlled by the opposition.
“Maintaining the (interim) presidency has nothing to do with Juan Guaidó. It’s a duty. You have the votes to destroy the interim presidency. Not Maduro. But you also have the votes to keep it and appoint the people who make it up,” added Guaidó, addressing the deputies of the former Parliament elected in 2015, who defend its continuity by considering the legislative elections won by power in 2020.
These parliamentarians elected in 2015 will vote this Friday to decide the future of the presidency.
Not recognizing Nicolas Maduro’s re-election in 2018 in a ballot boycotted by the opposition, Mr. Guaidó proclaimed himself “president” in January 2019, and obtained the recognition of around fifty countries, including the States States and France.
However, international support has since waned. There is even a warming between Washington and Mr. Maduro, in the context of the oil crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
The three parties in favor of the disappearance of the “provisional government” (Primero Justicia, Accion Democratica and Un Nuevo Tiempo) confirmed their position on Tuesday in a press release: “the provisional government has ceased to be useful […] and is of no interest to citizens”.
The opposition has announced that it will hold primaries next year to choose a single candidate to face Maduro in the 2024 presidential election. Mr. Guaidó is among the possible candidates.