MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. The United States has been long, but in vain, attempting to persuade the Venezuelan top brass to betray their homeland, Venezuela’s Ambassador in Moscow Carlos Faria Tortosa said on Wednesday.
"The United States has been constantly trying to talk the officers and service members of our Armed Forces into betraying their country. They [the Americans] have been unable to achieve the goal for 20 years," the diplomat said. "I have mentioned that period as it will be 20 years in February since Comandante [Hugo] Chavez came to power."
On February 4, General Francisco Esteban Yanez Rodriguez, a top Venezuelan air force officer, pledged his support to opposition leader Juan Guaido. In response, the country’s Air Force called him a traitor.
Earlier, the US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton urged in a Twitter post the Venezuelan top brass to side with the opposition.
Venezuelan crisis
On January 23, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition Juan Guaido, whose appointment as parliamentary speaker had been annulled by the Supreme Court two days before that, declared himself as interim president. On the same day, the United States recognized him as acting head of state. So did the Lima Group countries (excluding Mexico), the Organization of American States, and a number of other countries. On January 29, Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA and put some of Venezuela’s assets in US banks under Guaido’s control.
Some European countries, including Britain, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and France on January 26 said they would recognize Guaido as interim president, if Maduro refused to call an early election within eight days. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Turkey stood up for Maduro’s support. The UN secretary-general urged a dialogue for resolving the crisis.