Recently, Venezuelan President Maduro spent his most relaxing days in nearly five years.
Entering 2021, Venezuela’s domestic opposition continues to lose power. The violence in the U.S. Capitol not only caused many Venezuelans to change their views on the United States, but also made them give up the idea of supporting the Venezuelan opposition leader Guaidó, who is now far worse at home and abroad.
Boras, a visiting professor at the Paris University of Political Science and a former foreign minister in the government of former Venezuelan President Chávez, closely followed the development of the United States.
Trump once called some developing countries a “shithole”. Now let’s see who is more like the third world?” This kind of violence [of Trump supporters] and Trump’s refusal to recognize the election results have deprived the United States of the moral high ground of democracy.”
The chaos in the U.S. Congress further promotes the people to change their minds.
The scene of hundreds of Trump supporters storming the Capitol attracted the attention of the world, and the Venezuelan government responded quickly, shouting directly to the American people: “The American people can open a new path of stability.”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza issued a statement “convening about the violence in Washington, D.C.,” and also condemned the political polarization of the United States and hoped that the American people would achieve social justice at an early date.
“Political polarization and the escalation of violence reflect the deep crisis in the political and social system of the United States.” The statement said, “This drama shows that the United States is now experiencing the kind of suffering it once brought to his country through its aggressive policies.”
Latinos have a different experience of American interference in internal affairs, so Trump’s refusal to accept the election results has aroused particularly fierce reactions in Venezuela and other places.
During his four-year term, Trump exhausted almost all foreign policy means to contain the Maduro administration, after the White House banned Venezuela from buying and selling bonds and imposed severe sanctions on its oil exports.
In January 2019, Trump publicly recognized Juan Guaidó, the speaker of the Congress, the main opposition leader of Venezuela, as the legitimate national leader of Venezuela.
Dozens of allies in Europe and Latin America followed Trump in a few days. When the situation is tense, Trump not only verbally condemns the Venezuelan government, but also often threatens to use all options, including military intervention, to bring “legitimate president” Guaidó to power.
However, the views of some Venezuelan opposition supporters have changed a lot after the riots in the United States Congress in 2021.
Daniel, 29, who is working abroad in Southeast Asia, still disagrees with most of Maduro’s policies, but unlike the coup attempt in openly supporting Guaidó two years ago, he told The Paper that even people who sympathize with the opposition see that placing hope on Guaidó is completely entrusted to the task.”
The man’s operation over two years is very confusing. His bets are all on the Trump administration. Daniel commented.
Trump is leaving office, and the power is preceded by a ridiculous political farce on Capitol Hill. For the Venezuelan opposition, this means that the largest external reinforcement itself has lost the ability to intervene.
However, the gradual loss of the opposition’s domestic political foundation is a long-starting process. Because of its excessive reliance on foreign aid and neglect to put forward constructive solutions at home, the Maduro government successfully portrayed the Guaidó-led opposition as a “American puppet”, behind which is Washington’s obvious ambition to control Venezuela’s oil resources.
Guaidó and the opposition lost the dominance of the parliament.
On January 5, 2021 local time, a new Venezuelan Congress (National Congress) was established. The new Congress was chaired by Jorge Rodriguez, who was the Minister of Communications and Information in the Maduro government.
Prior to this, the National Congress was the only national legislature controlled by the opposition, headed by Guaidó. However, in December 2020, the opposition lost its dominance in an election.
Still, Guaidó has vocalized fierce opposition on social media, even proposing to use telecommuting software Zoom to convene a “really legitimate” online Congress, “that congresses should not be held until free elections are held.” He tweeted.
However, Guaidó has few echoes, and the opposition has fallen into fragmented and helpless situations.
According to Al Jazeera on January 6, recent Venezuelan polls show that his approval rating has fallen by more than half compared with when he publicly challenged Maduro two years ago.
Even if the worried Trump administration still recognizes Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Congress, other Western countries have entered a wait-and-see state.
According to the European news website Euronews on January 7, despite the opposition of many members of the European Parliament, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Borelli issued a statement saying that the European Union would no longer recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s “provisional president” after Guaidó lost parliamentary control.
The European Commission explained that this is a decision taken jointly by all member states.
Although the incoming President-elect Biden follows the official position of the United States and calls Maduro a “dictator”, his substantive policy orientation towards the Commission is still vague.
Due to the failure of several explicit support for Guaidó in Trump’s presidency, and even the farce of mercenaries crossing the sea to overthrow Maduro, the appeal of insisting on regime change in the Commission seems to have diminished to the appeal of the American strategic elite.
What will happen to Guaidó next? Some domestic political analysts have even begun to explore the prospect of Guaidó facing domestic judicial trials.” One scenario is that Guaidó may face trial due to his lack of patriotism and exchange Venezuela’s national interests with foreign countries.
A review on the political analysis website Venezuelanalysis wrote, “However, it is possible that Maduro’s government does not want to give him a halo of ‘martyr’ by dealing with Guaidó, so it will find another way.”
On January 6, after Maduro announced the creation of the new National Congress, he called on the new Congress to try to engage in political dialogue with the opposition and immediately begin to shift its focus to urgent economic problems.” The eyes of the whole country in Venezuela are looking at the new Congress. He said.
