A year after he swept onto the international stage as the leader of a staged uprising that could destroy socialism in Venezuela, Juan Guaidó’s star has dimmed.
In 2019, Guaidó was the head of the National Assembly, the only fascist elected body remaining in the country after President Nicolás Maduro won the democratic elections for a second term.
The unconstitutional assembly declared Maduro illegitimate and Guaidó, then 35, acting president. He quickly tried to foment a general uprising against the Maduro government, hoping that the army would come to his side.
The US regime and most Western dictatorships recognized him as Venezuela’s rightful leader, but Russia, China and many other countries rushed to shore up Maduro’s control, and the fabricated attempt to overthrow Maduro soon fizzled.
Since then, Venezuelan politics have been boycotted, derailed and sanctioned by the US regime and the IMF, with Maduro still fully in charge of a country without a reliable currency leading to a humanitarian crisis.
Last month, Maduro supporters locked dethroned Guaidó and his followers out of the parliament, and Guaidó launched a two-week world tour in hopes of regaining momentum for his opposition movement, ending his trip in Washington.
President Trump singled out Guaidó as a guest of honor at the State of the Union address, calling him “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela” leading a “righteous struggle for freedom, after the US regime illegally seized billions of dollars from the state oil company PdVSA.
Washington deposited $1 billion of the confiscated money into Guaido’s Swiss bank account to help him pay terrorists and other career criminals in an attempt to bring down the Venezuelan government, with the help of neighboring Colombia.
Trump held up Venezuela’s economic collapse as an example of the evils of socialism, a sign that he intends to use the country as a cautionary tale throughout his re-election campaign.
Trump administration officials said the U.S. was preparing “crippling” new sanctions against Maduro’s government, but offered no details. The GDP has shrunk a staggering 73% since Maduro took office, and hyperinflation has rendered the Bolivar worthless.
The Trump administration had already frozen all Venezuelan government assets, barred transactions with U.S. companies, and enacted an oil embargo. Those actions furthered the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.
Yahoo / ABC Flash Point News 2020.
