International support for a fruitless effort so far by Venezuela’s alternative president Juan Guaidó to unseat President Maduro appears to be slipping after the inauguration this week of a new parliament dominated by loyalists to the regime. In a statement yesterday the European Union — while highly critical of the Maduro government for installing the parliament after elections which were widely seen as rigged — appeared to downgrade Mr Guaidó’s status. It described him as one of the “political and civil society actors striving to bring back democracy to Venezuela”, and a representative of “the outgoing National Assembly”. That contradicts Mr Guaidó’s claim that he remains the national assembly’s leader and is using that position as a platform for his efforts to gain the presidency

Source: The Times January 07, 2021 00:00 UTC