‘They’ll Be Better Off for It’: Venezuelan Opposition Abandons ‘Interim President’ Juan Guaido
Venezuelan politician Juan Guaido speaks to the press in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022.
Anti-government legislators who claim to make up the opposition in Venezuela are poised to abandon their support for Juan Guaido, who has insisted since January 2019 that he is the “interim president” of Venezuela.The leaders of three of the four main opposition parties which were elected to Venezuela’s National Assembly in 2015 – and now insist they’re the legitimate government of the Caribbean nation despite lacking any real control over the country’s institutions – decided to abandon their support for the would-be Guaido regime in a 72 to 23 vote Thursday.A second vote is expected to ratify the decision in the next week.“The process that we began in January of 2019 has weakened and is no longer perceived as a real option for change,” the mostly-marginal opposition groups insisted in a statement Wednesday. “This country requires new paths that will help us to return to democracy.”But for many observers, the mass desertion from the Guaido camp is less about democracy and more about reestablishing their political bona fides in the eyes of the average voter in the South American state.“For the Venezuelan opposition, Juan Guaido – from his inception – has been a lethal tapeworm.”That’s according to Anya Parampil, a journalist with the independent American investigative outlet The Grayzone, and the author of the upcoming book Corporate Coup: The Failed Attempt to Overthrow Venezuela Democracy.“The process of expelling him from their system has been tough, but they’ll be better off for it,” she told Sputnik News.“Much of the Venezuelan opposition has given up on Guaido for a long time,” Parampil noted. “This announcement represents the lowest bowels of the US-controlled faction finally realizing they made the wrong call by supporting Guaido all these years.”Dissident parties which make up Guaido’s supposed opposition coalition have been operating in open defiance of the wishes of major opposition factions for several years.“Even the Venezuelan opposition has questioned Guaido’s status as ‘president’ of the National Assembly since 2020,” Parampil notes.Regardless of the stance of the country’s opposition, Venezuela’s constitution dictates that presidential elections be held in 2024. Whether their latest maneuver can succeed without the greenlight from Guaido’s closest allies remains to be seen.
