MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/. US Vice President Michael Pence has welcomed the activities of the opposition in Venezuela, where a group of army officers pledged support for opposition leader Juan Guaido.
"To Juan Guaido, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in Operacion Libertad - Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom and democracy are restored. Vayan con dios!" Pence wrote on Twitter.
Earlier on Tuesday, Guaido posted a video on Twitter, calling on the Venezuelan military to take to the streets to end the "usurpation." He claimed that the video had been recorded at the Francisco de Miranda airbase in Caracas. The video shows Guaido, a group of army officers and leader of the Voluntad Popular (or Popular Will) opposition party Leopoldo Lopez, who is supposed to be under house arrest.
Situation in Venezuela
On January 23, 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.
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. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US. On February 4, most of the European Union member states recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president.
In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria 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.