PRI: Guillermo Zubillaga on Why Juan Guaidó Represents "A Big Hope"
PRI: Guillermo Zubillaga on Why Juan Guaidó Represents "A Big Hope"
The AS/COA's Venezuela Working Group head says many observers have called the January 5 vote for a new National Assembly president a "sham election."
(Zubillaga quoted at 38:27).
Guillermo Zubillaga, head of the AS/COA Venezuela Working Group, spoke to Public Radio International’s The World on Monday, the day after Juan Guaidó was forced out of the Venezuelan National Assembly building in a chaotic scene as deputies loyal to Nicolás Maduro elected a new head of the legislature, albeit without a quorum.
Guaidó remains, said Zubillaga, “the only legitimate democratically elected representative leader” of the assembly, the position from which he derives the constitutional authority to serve as interim president of the country. “We have seen a lot of statements from the international community saying that what occurred yesterday was a sham election.”
Zubillaga said that Russia was the only international actor to recognize the new chavista-installed head of Congress, Luis Parra, while the European Union, the United States, and most countries in the Lima Group reaffirmed their recognition of Guaidó. Argentina and Mexico, meanwhile, denounced the irregularity and illegality of Sunday's proceedings.
While the future remains unclear, Zubillaga said that Guaidó nonetheless “represents a big hope.”
