World

Venezuela's Guaido eyes second chance after trying 'everything'

January 05, 2020
In this file picture taken on July 23, 2019 Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido gives the thumb up after voting for rejoining the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) during a session of the opposition-led National Assembly held at Alfredo Sadel square in Caracas. -AFP
In this file picture taken on July 23, 2019 Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido gives the thumb up after voting for rejoining the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) during a session of the opposition-led National Assembly held at Alfredo Sadel square in Caracas. -AFP

CARACAS - Juan Guaido "tried everything" in 2019 to force Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro from power, to no avail. Yet the 36-year-old opposition leader has vowed to re-launch the offensive this year.

The National Assembly speaker is set to be re-elected to his position on Sunday, but it is the top job currently occupied by socialist leader Maduro that he's after.

Just under a year since declaring himself acting president -- in a move recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries -- Guaido pledges to "resist and insist."

His power struggle began brightly when Guaido showed ingenuity and skill in rallying supporters to protest and defying Maduro's authority in a number of ways -- including flouting a travel ban.

But his challenge petered out over the second half of 2019, though he's never given up his demand for the "usurper" Maduro to resign so a transitional government can take over ahead of new elections.

Guaido, like many in the international community, considers the leader's 2018 re-election to have been fraudulent.

"Juan is ready to take on the challenge, there's no doubt about that," lawmaker Olivia Lozano, a member of Guaido's Popular Will party, told AFP.

"I'm a survivor, not a victim," Guaido has said, recalling how he survived one of Venezuela's worst natural disasters as a teenager: the Vargas tragedy of December 1999, when mudslides caused by torrential rain killed thousands of people.

Back then, Guaido lived with his mother and five siblings in the coastal state of Vargas.

"I know what it means to be hungry," he said.

Hunger is something millions in his country are intimately familiar with now. Venezuela's economy has crumbled, with shortage of cash, food, medicine and other basics that have led millions to flee. -AFP


January 05, 2020
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