Juan Guaidó: Venezuela's opposition removes interim president

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Juan Guaidó, previously leader of the opposition in Venezuela

Photo: LEO ALVAREZ / AFP

Venezuela's opposition voted on Friday to remove interim President Juan Guaidó.

Three of Venezuela's four main opposition parties supported the proposal to remove Guaidó.

After the vote, Guaidó said the move would create a "power vacuum" that could encourage more foreign states to recognize the Maduro government.

“It destroys what could have been preserved.” Guaidó has been the public face of the fractious Venezuelan opposition since 2019.

MEPs want to use the move to try to find common ground for the 2024 elections.

Only Guaidó's Voluntad Popular party opposed plans to depose him and convene a five-member commission to manage foreign assets.

Both the article on the abolition of the interim government and the article on the establishment of the Property Commission were adopted with 72 votes in favour, 29 against and eight abstentions.

The United States will continue to support the opposition, the assembly and the interim government "regardless of what form it takes," a US National Security Council spokesman said Friday.

The United States and dozens of other states such as Germany have not recognized President Nicolás Maduro's re-election in 2018.

With the support of Russia, Cuba, China and Iran, Maduro has so far been able to stay in office.

The United States wants to use sanctions to force free and fair presidential elections in 2024.

According to United Nations estimates, more than seven million Venezuelans left their country this year to escape poverty, high inflation and food shortages.

mgo/AP/Reuters