Venezuelan opposition has Guaidó on the tight rope

Three years after Venezuela’s fractured opposition rallied around Juan Guaidó with strong U.S. backing, several of those same political parties are ready to challenge Washington and shed him as the flagship face of their movement.

A group of governments, led by the United States, is pressuring the parties to extend Guaidó’s term as president of the National Assembly and head of the interim opposition government after it expires in January, according to eight people with direct knowledge of the situation.

Three of the four main opposition parties oppose the idea and even some members of Guaidó’s own Popular Will party have not joined, according to the people.

“There is the intention to extend the mandate of the Government of Guaidó. That has not helped the Venezuelan people and I am not going to support it.”Said Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate for the Primero Justicia party whose support for Guaidó —which was key in 2019— has been cooled by the recent stumbling blocks of the interim government.

The dissent stems from the failure of the Guaido government to topple President Nicolás Maduro and from discrepancies over the handling of assets abroad, the people said.

The split is likely to strengthen Maduro ahead of the Nov. 21 elections for mayors and governors, the first in three years in which the opposition plans to participate. He has yet to unify around candidates in the few positions where he has a chance, and the dispute over Guaidó adds to the mess.

This also happens after Maduro withdrew from negotiations with the opposition in Mexico last month, a result, he said, of the extradition of a key ally by the United States.

Guaidó’s representatives declined to comment. In a recent tweet, Guaidó said that the support of US representatives such as Senator Dick Durbin is key in the fight to “defeat the tragedy that the dictatorship represents ”.

Split matches

The leader of the Primero Justicia party, Julio Borges, who has served as Guaidó’s delegate for foreign relations and ambassador to the United Nations, opposes extending his mandate, as do the leaders of the Un Nuevo Tiempo and Acción Democrática parties, the people said.

A coalition of more than two dozen small political parties, which controls a bloc of minority voters in the Assembly, plans to back Guaidó, according to one of the people. The Assembly has already voted once to extend Guaidó’s term, but it is unclear if they will attempt a similar vote before the January deadline.

When Guaidó positioned himself almost three years ago on the stage, aged 35, it was as a result of an interpretation and constitutional alternative to Maduro, who assumed power after elections seen as fraudulent.

Many Venezuelans hoped that the combination of opposition unity, international backing, and US sanctions would remove Maduro and create the conditions for new elections. Arguing that Maduro’s presidency had no legal basis, Guaidó established a shadow government, which included parallel diplomatic missions.

But Maduro stood his ground and Guaido’s position has diminished in a once wealthy nation that is slowly crumbling. Many of those seeking a future for Venezuela beyond Maduro are now seeking to regroup and focus on winning the presidential elections in 2024. They are calling for the government to return to the negotiating table, the people said.

US officials, led by Ambassador James “JimmyStory, they have met with two key opposition leaders: Borges and Leopoldo López, an exiled politician who is the founder and leader of Guaidó’s party and one of the forces behind the plan to extend the mandate, the people said.

The State Department does not comment on the content or the existence of private diplomatic conversations, a spokesperson said in an email response to questions.

“The United States continues to recognize the authority of the 2015 democratically elected National Assembly as the last remaining democratic institution, and of Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.”The spokesperson wrote.

Borges and López did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Although Guaidó has practically no political authority in the country, his recognition as an interim leader by other governments has given him control over billions of dollars in assets that Venezuela owns in those countries, including the parent company of the oil refinery and distributor of oil. gas Citgo Holding Inc.

The question now is what will happen once the Assembly’s mandate, which gives Guaidó his right to power, expires in January. If Guaidó does not have a mandate at home, his control over state oil company PDVSA and the central bank’s assets abroad may fall into a vacuum.

Some of his supporters say that staying with Guaidó is vital because it is fundamentally about keeping attention focused on the illegal nature of the Maduro government, not on all of them “safe”To Guaidó.

“It must continue until free elections are held, as it is the basis of the argument that sustained the international community declaring Maduro an illegitimate leader.”Said José Ignacio Hernández, former Guaidó attorney general. “Those who oppose him would be violating the constitution. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union have called for free presidential elections”.