Ecuador recognizes the presidency of Juan Guaidó

Posted On 24 Jan 2019

Ecuadornews:

The platform where Juan Guaidó was expected, president of the National Assembly, with an opposition majority, had the flags and the Venezuelan Shield. It was a sign that something different was going to happen.

In no previous manifestation had seen something like that. And it was to give the position of solemnity to the oath that Guaidó made as interim president of Venezuela. “Today, January 23, 2019, in my capacity as president of the National Assembly, invoking the articles of the Constitution (…) before almighty God, Venezuela (…) I swear to formally assume the powers of the National Executive as president in charge of Venezuela, “he told hundreds of thousands of attendees.

Between cries of joy, he said he took this step to “achieve the cessation of the usurpation, install a transitional government and have free elections.” Guaidó was based on Article 233 of the Constitution, which states, in one of its paragraphs, that an absolute lack of the President is “the abandonment of the office, declared as such by the National Assembly, as well as the popular revocation of his mandate” .

This state body did not recognize Maduro’s possession on January 10 and declared him “usurper” of the Presidency after having triumphed in illegitimate elections in May 2018. It did not take long for many countries of the international community recognize the presidency of Guaidó.

The United States, Ecuador, France, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, the European Union, among others, backed the young Venezuelan politician who went from being little known to putting Maduro on the ropes.

Facebook and Instagram removed the verification badges that recognized him as President of the Nation. For the US president, Donald Trump, Guaidó has the “role of the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people” and that he “invoked the Constitution” to “declare Nicolás Maduro illegitimate and, therefore, the office of the Presidency was vacant.”

President Lenin Moreno, in a video sent from Switzerland, where he participates in the Forum of Davos, said that Ecuador has always called for a peaceful solution in Venezuela and that “echoes” the pronouncement of the Assembly, which was held “within of the frame of the norms of the Constitution, that corresponds a presidential relay “.

Finally, Moreno predicted that free elections will be called, with international observation that “inaugurate a new era of democratic prosperity and fraternity.” Caracas and several Venezuelan cities were the scene of multitudinous mobilizations of opposition to the Regime. That of Caracas was forceful, although of short duration: many Venezuelans feared the repression of the Chavez shock groups and the security forces.

At the close of this edition, there were 13 dead since Tuesday night, according to the Observatory of Social Conflict, critical of the government. There were also demonstrations in favor of the regime that, when the crowd arrived at the Miraflores Palace, they listened to Maduro, who blamed the “media siege”, which ignored the expression of “the Venezuelan people that puts and takes presidents” by democratic means.

In addition, he decided to cut diplomatic and political relations with the United States and gave 72 hours for the representatives of Washington to leave the country. And Lenin Moreno said he was “a nazifascist” and a “nefarious president”.

But Guaidó further upset Maduro and said that his country did not break relations with any country and asked all the countries that recognized him to keep their diplomatic headquarters in the country.

Maduro received support, at the close of this edition, from Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba and Russia (in this case, Senator Andréi Klímov, said that the country will continue supporting Caracas, according to the newspaper El Universal, of Chavez tendency).

But above all of the military high command. According to the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, “the soldiers of the Homeland do not accept a president imposed in the shadow of obscure interests or self-proclaimed outside the law.

The FANB defends our Constitution and is guarantor of national sovereignty.” But, the general of division, Jesus Alberto Milano, asked the military to participate peacefully against “the dictatorship of Maduro”, according to the Colombian chain NTN24.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, asked Maduro to resign from the Presidency because “the Venezuelan people have suffered for a long time their disastrous dictatorship”, so it should be done “aside in favor of a legitimate leader who reflects the will of the people. “

He also said he will not withdraw the diplomatic staff. A senior White House official said that “if Maduro and his cronies respond with violence, they harm any of the National Assembly or other elected officials, we duly have to adopt all the options on the table.” Later, Trump endorsed this idea. The OAS meets today, in an extraordinary way, to analyze the facts in Venezuela. (I)

#EcuadorConVenezuela pic.twitter.com/B9yMVeT5Vw
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) 23 de enero de 2019

#EcuadorEnDavos 🇪🇨🇨🇭| En el marco del #wef19 el presidente de Ecuador, @Lenin Moreno, mantuvo un diálogo diplomático con sus homólogos internacionales sobre la "Respuesta Global a la Crisis Humanitaria en Venezuela". pic.twitter.com/6nMyzRZCxh
— Presidencia ECU (@Presidencia_Ec) 23 de enero de 2019