Venezuela’s embattled president Nicolas Maduro rejected an international ultimatum to call elections within eight days and said opposition leader Juan Guaido had violated the country’s constitution by declaring himself leader.
Mr Maduro, in an interview with CNN Turk aired on Sunday, also said he was open to dialogue and that meeting US president Donald Trump was improbable but not impossible. The broadcaster dubbed the interview from Spanish into Turkish.
Washington, which has recognised Mr Guaido as leader, had on Saturday urged the world to "pick a side" on Venezuela and financially disconnect from Maduro's government.
In heated back-and-forth exchanges at a United Nations Security Council meeting, the opposing camp led by Venezuela and Russia, which has invested heavily in Venezuela's oil industry, accused Washington of attempting a coup, and lambasted Europeans' demand that elections be called within eight days.
Mr Guaido, who took the helm of the National Assembly on January 5th, proclaimed himself interim president on Wednesday. The United States, Canada and a string of Latin American countries recognised the young leader in quick succession. Mr Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013 and has the support of the armed forces, has refused to stand down.
But on Saturday Nr Guaido (35) gained support from a key military official. Venezuela’s defence attache to Washington, Colonel Jose Luis Silva, told Reuters that he has broken with the Maduro government and recognized Mr Guaido as interim president.
Speaking at the UN meeting, called by the United States, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said Mr Maduro's "socialist experiment" had caused the economy to collapse and reduced ordinary Venezuelans to rooting through dumpsters for food.
“Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side . . . Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem,” Mr Pompeo told the council. “We call on all members of the Security Council to support Venezuela’s democratic transition and interim president Guaido’s role.”
Mr Pompeo also called on the international community to disconnect their financial systems from Mr Maduro’s government. Washington has signalled it was ready to step up economic measures to try to drive Mr Maduro from power, but on Saturday Mr Pompeo declined to elaborate on any such plans.
By overcoming opposition to holding the UN meeting on Saturday, Washington successfully put the global spotlight on Venezuela as a Security Council problem. However, any council action to address the crisis would be blocked by veto-powers Russia and China, diplomats said.
Britain, Germany, France and Spain all said on Saturday they would recognise Mr Guaido if Mr Maduro failed to call fresh elections within eight days, an ultimatum Russia said was "absurd" and the Venezuelan foreign minister called "childlike."
"Europe is giving us eight days? Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people?" Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza told the Security Council.
Russia also said military intervention in Venezuela should be avoided at any cost, while Caracas reiterated that its offer of dialogue with US president Donald Trump’s government was still on the table despite his administration’s two-year campaign against Mr Maduro.
“If president Trump, like other presidents of the United States, is in search of war to show he can govern and to stimulate the economy, he won’t get that war in Venezuela,” Mr Arreaza told reporters later.
Food shortages
Venezuela has sunk into turmoil under Mr Maduro with food shortages and protests amid an economic and political crisis that has sparked mass emigration and inflation that is seen rising to 10 million per cent this year.
Mr Maduro cruised to re-election last May. The opposition largely boycotted the vote after its senior leaders were blocked from taking part. Critics accused the government of vote-buying. The domestic opposition, the United States and right-leaning Latin American governments declined to recognise the result of the ballot.
Venezuelan opposition sympathisers had been urging Mr Guaido to assume the presidency since Mr Maduro was inaugurated for a second term on January 10th. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Caracas earlier this week, calling on Mr Maduro to step down.
Mr Guaido’s declaration of himself as the interim president takes Venezuela into uncharted territory, with the possibility of the opposition now running a parallel government recognized abroad as legitimate but without control over state functions.
After the Security Council debate, Mr Guaido sent a letter to secretary general Antonio Guterres asking the United Nations for help addressing hunger, violence and the lack of medicines in his country.
The United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Mr Guaido celebrated the support of European countries and also asked them to send humanitarian aid to help relieve the economic crisis. “We woke up today with nothing less than the full support of the European community,” Mr Guaido said at a small political event in a square in the capital Caracas.
“Several European countries have been in touch with us and are going to support the entry of humanitarian aid . . . We continue adding countries to this great effort,” he said.
The Maduro government has previously rejected such aid, denying there is a humanitarian crisis in the country and blaming economic problems on sanctions.
After Washington’s declaration of support for Mr Guaido, Mr Maduro cut off diplomatic relations with the United States on Wednesday and gave US diplomats 72 hours to leave the country.
Some US embassy staff left Caracas on Friday, and Venezuela was withdrawing staff from Washington on Saturday, Venezuela’s foreign ministry said in a statement
However, Mr Maduro softened his demand that all US embassy staff withdraw by Saturday.
Instead, the two countries will seek an agreement to replace the embassies with “Interest Offices” in their respective capitals within 30 days, the statement said. If that fails, the missions would close.–Reuters