Moscow considers moves to force
Venezuela president from power to be illegal, says
Russian politician
Venezuela’s opposition leader,
Juan Guaidó, has declared himself the interim president and has won the backing of the US, the EU and most of the regional bloc called the Lima Group – but a number of key allies remained steadfast in support of president
Nicolás Maduro.
Russia, a major Venezuelan ally, considers moves to force Maduro from power to be illegal, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Thursday.
Russian lawmaker Franz Klinzevich has warned that Moscow could wind up its military cooperation with Venezuela if Maduro, whom he called the legitimately-elected president, was ousted.
Other MPs criticised US actions against Maduro. “The US is trying to carry out an operation to organise the next ‘colour revolution’ in Venezuela,” Andrei Klimov, the deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house of parliament, said, using a term for the popular uprisings that unseated leaders in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
Another committee member, Vladimir Dzhabrailov, said: “I do not think that we can recognise this – it is, in essence, a coup.”
Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft, is heavily invested in the South American nation’s oil fields, which produce declining amounts of crude each month.
The Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan, called Maduro and offered his support, a spokesman for the Turkish president said on Thursday. “Our president called and extended Turkey’s support to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and said ‘My brother Maduro! Stand tall, we stand by you!’,” Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.
Turkey’s foreign minister said that Guaidó’s declaration might lead to chaos.
“There is an elected president and another person declares himself president, and some countries recognise this. This may cause chaos,” Mevlut Cavusoglu told the A Haber news channel. “We are against the isolation of countries. I hope the situation will be solved peacefully.”
China has not yet publicly declared its support for Maduro but Venezuela has been one of Beijing’s closest allies in Latin America, and the largest recipient of Chinese financing, as much as $50bn in loans by 2017. China is Venezuela’s largest creditor, prompting concerns that as Venezuela’s economy spirals, state assets could fall into Chinese hands, as was the case with Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port.
It is in Beijing’s interest to support Maduro, given that a new government could refuse to honour Venezuela’s debt obligations to China. Maduro met Chinese president Xi Jinping last year where he toured Mao Zedong’s mausoleum in Beijing and the two countries agreed on $5bn in loans to boost the country’s oil sector and more than 20 bilateral agreements.
Mexico, part of the 14-member Lima Group, departed from the regional bloc’s call for democratic transition and said it would stick to its “constitutional principles of non-intervention”.
It joined with Uruguay – the only other prominent Latin American country still recognising Maduro – in calling for additional talks between the government and opposition to find a “peaceful solution”. Previous talks brokered by the Vatican on the Venezuelan situation broke down.
Mexico had previously and vocally criticised Venezuela but new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has returned the country to its traditional foreign policy of not opining on other internal affairs of other countries and expecting the same silence in return.
Uruguay’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the two countries were proposing a “new process of inclusive and credible negotiations with full respect for the rule of law and human rights” to resolve the dispute peacefully.
Cuba expressed its firm support, with state newspaper Granma saying that by recognising Guaido as interim president, Trump “is directing a coup d’état”. Cuba is hugely dependent on Venezuelan petroleum paid for with doctors.