{"id":28880,"date":"2019-01-12T20:23:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T20:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28880"},"modified":"2019-01-12T20:23:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T20:23:37","slug":"pompeo-calls-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-government-illegitimate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=28880","title":{"rendered":"Pompeo calls Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro government ‘illegitimate’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called Venezuela<\/a>‘s government under President Nicolas Maduro<\/a> “illegitimate” as Washington steps up its call for an “orderly transition” to a new government.<\/p>\n

“The Maduro regime is illegitimate and the United States will work diligently to restore a real democracy to that country,” Pompeo told reporters on Saturday\u00a0in Abu Dhabi during his tour of the Middle East<\/a> countries.<\/p>\n

Pompeo said the United States<\/a> would work with like-minded countries in Latin America<\/a> to restore democracy in the Latin American nation.<\/p>\n

“We are very hopeful we can be a force for good to allow the region to come together to deliver that.”<\/p>\n

In a statement earlier on Saturday, the US State Department also said it stood behind the head of Venezuela’s opposition-run congress, Juan Guaido, a day after he said he was prepared to step into the presidency temporarily to replace Maduro.<\/p>\n

The two statements were only the latest in a series of Trump administration’s attacks on Maduro, whose inauguration to a disputed second term as president took place on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“The people of Venezuela deserve to live in freedom in a democratic society governed by the rule of law,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said.<\/p>\n

“It is time to begin the orderly transition to a new government. We support the National Assembly’s call for all Venezuelans to work together, peacefully, to restore constitutional government and build a better future,”\u00a0he said in the statement also released from Abu Dhabi during Pompeo’s trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The United States government will continue to use the full weight of US economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”<\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nThe head of Venezuela’s opposition-run congress, Juan Guaido, said he is prepared to step into the presidency temporarily to replace Maduro [<\/span>Manaure Quintero\/Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Earlier this week, Pompeo spoke to opposition leader Guaido shortly after the 35-year-old was elected to lead the National Assembly.<\/p>\n

Pompeo told reporters travelling with him that the events taking place in Venezuela were “incredibly important”.<\/p>\n

Mass protest planned<\/h2>\n

Guaido, speaking to a crowd blocking a Caracas street a day after Maduro’s inauguration, said he was willing to become interim leader.<\/p>\n

But he said he would need support from the public, the armed forces and other countries and international groups, before trying to form a transitional government to hold new elections to replace Maduro.<\/p>\n

The head of the Organization of American States, Secretary-General Luis Almagro, responded quickly, sending out a tweet recognising Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president.<\/p>\n

Seventeen Latin American countries, the US and Canada<\/a> denounced Maduro’s government as illegitimate in a measure adopted on Thursday at the OAS in Washington.<\/p>\n

US National Security Adviser John Bolton praised Guaido, although Bolton did not echo Almagro’s step of calling him the interim president.<\/p>\n

Bolton reaffirmed the US position that the May election that gave Maduro a second term was “not free, fair or credible”.<\/p>\n

Bolton said “we support the courageous decision” of Guaido’s declaration “that Maduro does not legitimately hold the country’s presidency”.<\/p>\n

Guaido asked Venezuelans to mass in a nationwide demonstration on January 23, a historically important date for Venezuelans – the day when a mass uprising overthrew dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958.<\/p>\n

The country’s constitution assigns the presidency to the head of the National Assembly if Maduro’s rule is declared illegitimate.<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s military, so far, has remained firmly behind Maduro, despite reports of small-scale attempts at a revolt.<\/p>\n

A once-wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is gripped by a growing crisis of relentless inflation, food shortages and mass migration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called Venezuela’s government under President Nicolas Maduro “illegitimate” as Washington steps up its call for an “orderly transition” to a new government. “The Maduro regime is illegitimate and the United States will work diligently to restore a real democracy to that country,” Pompeo told reporters on Saturday\u00a0in Abu…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":28881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}