Juan Guaido spoke today outside of the National Assembly on a variety of topics, including the ongoing talks between the Maduro regime and the opposition. Guaido suggested that the talks were going well, and hinted at what a possible resolution might look like.
Speaking to reporters, Guaido said that the negotiations were working towards “a real solution… that includes something that we all know”. Given the context of Guadio’s comment, the “something that we all know” appears to be early presidential elections.
Guaido also said that it was clear that the international community–including the Pope and Russia–are all in consensus about the situation in Venezuela, something that he says has never happened before.
Guaido’s reference to the Pope is likely in response to the fact that the pontiff prayed for Venezuela during mass at the Vatican this past Sunday, and called on both sides to reach an end to the political stalemate “to bring an end to the suffering of the people”.
The reference to Russia was less clear. However, it is likely that Guaido was referencing the fact that Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said over the weekend that Moscow hopes that the two sides will reach a negotiated solution to the crisis “as soon as possible”.
Guaido also called on Venezuelans to continue their struggle against the Maduro regime, calling it a “duty”:
It is a duty for all of us to stand up, to continue to fight and exercise our power as citizens.
Colombia Will Ask Lima Group for More Individual Sanctions
Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Holmes Trujillo said today that he would propose to the Lima Group that its member countries place more sanctions against individuals linked to the Maduro regime.
Holmes said that Bogota was willing to back more of these types of sanctions because the ones that are already in effect have had “a very positive impact.”
The foreign minister’s comments come on the same day that news broke that Colombia had denied entry into the country to Emmanuel Andrade Colmenares, the son of a prominent chavista who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence in the U.S. for corruption.
Andrade’s father, Alejandro Andrade Cedeño, was treasurer in the Chavez government between 2007 and 2011. In 2017, he was arrested in the U.S. where he lived as part of a corruption investigation which alleged that he profited from a corruption scheme involving Venezuela’s currency exchange system, stealing as many as $1 billion from the country’s coffers. He pleaded guilty in 2017, and was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Colombian Minister of Immigration Christian Kruger said that Andrade was denied entry into the country for the following reason:
We are not going to allow people who’ve caused so much harm to the Venezuelan people to enter our country freely to enjoy [themselves], all the while their people starve to death [or] are condemned to exile by the dictatorship that bled the richest country in the region dry.
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