CARACAS, February 3. /TASS/. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido believes that President Nicolas Maduro’s political adversaries are very strong now, he said in an interview with newspaper El Nacional released on Saturday evening (Sunday morning Moscow time).
"Today we are very strong as opposition, stronger than ever," the politician said. "We should work each day to create the unity, not just of political parties, but of all forces as well." He hopes that the situation in Venezuela, which is seeing a political crisis, will normalize.
Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas on January 23. Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), Australia, Albania, Georgia and Israel, as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him. Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US.
Meanwhile, Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands said that they would recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president unless Maduro called elections by February 3.
In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey voiced support for Maduro, while China called for resolving all differences peacefully and warned against foreign interference. The United Nations secretary general, in turn, called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.