Urgency of crisis demands quick action
Returning from a month-long holiday in the US, I was immediately struck by the urgency of the pollution crisis as I landed in Delhi, past midnight this week.
The United States on Thursday warned Venezuela’s leftist regime of consequences if opposition leader Juan Guaido is not allowed to return safely from a visit to Washington.
Elliott Abrams, the US point man on Venezuela said, “We hope that the regime makes the calculation, particularly after this trip, that the support for Guaido is strong and that the counter-reaction to any move against him would make it a mistake for the regime”.
On Wednesday, Guaido described his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House as very productive.
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Guaido said, “On behalf of the Venezuelans we are here because on January 5, 7 and 15 we managed to resist the onslaught of a dictatorship, resist what was the attempt to take parliament by force”.
Guaido, who is also the President of Venezuela’s National Assembly, made the remarks shortly after meeting Trump, whose administration was the first to back him after he proclaimed himself Venezuela’s interim President January 23, 2019.
Earlier, Guaido met with Colombian President Ivan Duque at the presidential residence.
Last January, Guaido invoked the constitution as head of the congress and declared Maduro a usurper. But a year on Maduro remains in power, despite a U.S. campaign to cut off his government’s sources of financing by imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil sector, and Guaido’s attempts to encourage the military to rebel.
Earlier this year, Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party seized control of the National Assembly and swore in an allied politician who defected from Guaido’s camp. Opposition lawmakers then voted Guaido in for a second term as Congress chief in a separate session.
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