CARACAS, Venezuela — The State Department’s top official on Venezuela said Tuesday that the Trump administration will continue recognizing lawmaker Juan Guaidó as the nation’s interim president even if President Nicolás Maduro's government ousts the opposition from control of congress — its last major stronghold. “He will not change the legal status for many countries around the world — and especially for us,” Trump’s special representative to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams told the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations in a hearing on Venezuela Tuesday. Maduro’s government has set a Dec. 6 election to renew the National Assembly. As the body’s leader, Guaidó last year claimed the nation’s presidency, arguing that Maduro's reelection had been fraudulent, in part because top opposition figures had been banned. Guaidó and more than two dozen opposition parties recently announced they will boycott the vote, saying Maduro's government has already manipulated the process, in part by imposing new leaders on the key parties allowed to take part, making the upcoming election a “fraud.” Their elected term will end in the first week of January.

Source: International New York Times August 04, 2020 18:00 UTC