Guinea swears in coup leader as interim president

By Saliou Samb

CONAKRY (Reuters) – Guinea junta leader Mamadi Doumbouya was inaugurated as interim president on Friday to oversee what regional powers hope will be a short transition to constitutional rule after the Sept. 5 overthrow of president Alpha Conde.

The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Mohamed VI Palace in the capital Conakry with the marked absence of most West African heads of state, who agreed last month to impose sanctions on junta members and their relatives.

West and Central Africa has seen four coups since last year – political upheaval that has intensified concerns about a slide towards military rule in a resource-rich but poverty-stricken region.

Wearing military dress uniform, a red beret and wraparound sunglasses, Doumbouya held up a white-gloved hand as he took the oath of office.

“I fully appreciate the magnitude and immensity of the responsibilities entrusted to me,” he said in a speech afterwards.

He promised to oversee a transition that would include the drafting of a new constitution, fighting corruption, electoral reform and the organization of free and transparent elections.

The junta has said its members will be barred from standing in the next elections, but has not made clear when these might take place, saying this will be decided by an 81-member Transitional National Council.

The Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc, has frozen assets and imposed travel bans on the junta, hoping to encourage a swift return to democracy.

Coup leaders have said they ousted Conde because of concerns about poverty and corruption, and because he was serving a third term only after altering the constitution to permit it.

Fears that the political crisis would hinder Guinea’s production of bauxite, a mineral used to make aluminum, have eased. The country’s largest foreign operators say they have continued work without interruption.

(Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Giles Elgood)

EU parliament recognizes Guaido as Venezuelan interim president

Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido attends a meeting with supporters to present a government plan of the opposition in Caracas, Venezuela January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Parliament recognized Venezuela’s self-declared interim president Juan Guaido as de facto head of state on Thursday, heightening international pressure on the OPEC member’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

EU lawmakers voted 439 in favor to 104 against, with 88 abstentions, at a special session in Brussels to recognize Venezuelan congress head Guaido as interim leader.

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro sits between National Constituent Assembly (ANC) President Diosdado Cabello (L) and National Electoral Council (CNE) President Tibisay Lucena during a ceremony to mark the opening of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), in Caracas, Venezuela, January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro sits between National Constituent Assembly (ANC) President Diosdado Cabello (L) and National Electoral Council (CNE) President Tibisay Lucena during a ceremony to mark the opening of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), in Caracas, Venezuela, January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

In a statement with the non-binding vote, the parliament urged the bloc’s 28 governments to follow suit and consider Guaido “the only legitimate interim president” until there were “new free, transparent and credible presidential elections”.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who spoke to Guaido on Wednesday and wants further EU sanctions on Venezuelan officials, urged counterparts to embrace the 35-year-old head of Venezuela’s National Assembly.

“Parliament has spoken. For us, Mr. Guaido is the president of Venezuela and we do hope that the European Union will find a united position on this,” he told reporters on arrival at a two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bucharest.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he was ready to join a common position on Venezuela if the bloc could agree what next steps to take.

Though accusing Maduro of stifling democracy, the European Union is nervous at the precedent of a self-declaration, so has been reluctant to follow the United States and most Latin American nations with immediate recognition of Guaido.

Britain, France, Germany and Spain said on Saturday, however, that they would recognize Guaido unless Maduro called elections within eight days. But the EU as a whole has not set a time limit in its call for a new presidential vote.

Maduro has dismissed the demands as an unacceptable ultimatum from the corrupt elite of spent colonial powers.

“The leaders of Europe are sycophants, kneeling behind the policies of Donald Trump,” he said at the weekend.

The European Parliament has no foreign policy powers but sees itself as a champion of human rights.

“Those who are demonstrating today in the streets of Venezuela are not Europeans, but they fight for the same values for which we fight,” Spanish center-right EU lawmaker Esteban Gonzalez Pons said in a statement.

As Venezuela has sunk into economic and political crisis that has brought mass emigration and hyperinflation, the EU imposed an arms embargo and sanctions on officials to decry what it views as rights violations and the rupture of democracy.

On Thursday, the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists said seven foreign journalists were detained in Venezuela, including French and Spanish reporters. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called for their release.

(Additional reporting by Clare Roth; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

U.S. seeks to cut off revenues for Venezuela’s Maduro, aid opposition

People look at damage at a metro station after a protest in Caracas, Venezuela January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Steve Holland and Brian Ellsworth

WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) – The United States is seeking to ensure that Venezuelan oil revenue goes to opposition leader Juan Guaido, who swore himself in as interim president, and to cut off money from the increasingly isolated President Nicolas Maduro, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

Although short on details, the announcement signals that Washington is willing to go beyond traditional diplomatic measures and will seek to drain cash from Maduro’s government which is already struggling under an unprecedented economic meltdown.

Such a move would significantly strengthen the hand of Guaido, an opposition leader and head of congress who swore himself in as interim head of state on Wednesday with the support of Washington and nations around the region.

“What we’re focusing on today is disconnecting the illegitimate Maduro regime from the sources of his revenues,” national security advisor John Bolton told reporters at the White House.

“We think consistent with our recognition of Juan Guaido as the constitutional interim president of Venezuela that those revenues should go to the legitimate government.”

Bolton added that the process was “very complicated” and that officials were still studying how this would function.

Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the issue. Guaido did not respond to a message seeking comment.

People walk close to a destroyed car in a street, after a protest in Caracas, Venezuela January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

People walk close to a destroyed car in a street, after a protest in Caracas, Venezuela January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

BOLD CHALLENGE

Guaido declared himself interim president on Wednesday with the blessing of the Trump administration and conservative governments in Latin America. That prompted Maduro, Venezuela’s leader since 2013, to break relations with the United States.

Guaido’s swearing-in was the opposition’s boldest challenge yet to the long-ruling Socialist Party and has given Maduro’s adversaries an unprecedented diplomatic platform to press for change in a nation dogged by hyperinflation, rising malnutrition and political conflict.

But Guaido now leads what amounts to a shadow government disavowed by the armed forces and with no influence over day-to-day administration such as importing and distributing food and medicine to a crisis-stricken population.

The 35-year-old industrial engineer who has been catapulted almost overnight to national leader spoke on Thursday by telephone with supportive heads of state from around the world.

“I just received a phone call from (Spain’s Prime Minister) Pedro Sanchez and was able to describe the struggle we are leading together with all of Venezuela, to achieve a transition government and hold free elections,” Guaido wrote via Twitter.

His ascent was greeted with excitement by investors holding Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA bonds, which hit their highest level since 2017 despite being almost entirely in default amid the country’s ongoing economic crisis.

Concerns about potential disruption of Venezuelan crude supplies gave support to global oil prices.

Oil revenues are crucial to the already crumbling Venezuelan economy and routing that money away from Maduro as the United State seeks to do would be a serious blow.

Venezuela on average, exported about 500,000 barrels of crude a day to the United States in 2018, according to U.S. Energy Department data.

Shipments to the United States account for about 75 percent of the cash Venezuela gets for crude shipments, according to a Barclays research note published last week.

WHO IS LEGITIMATE PRESIDENT?

Guaido took the helm of the National Assembly on Jan. 5 with a call for the armed forces to recognize Maduro as a “usurper” after his May 2018 re-election, widely viewed as fraudulent.

Backing for him has come principally from the Western hemisphere. Venezuelan allies including Russia and Turkey – both important commercial partners – criticized Guaido’s rise as a sign of U.S. interference.

“The Russian president has expressed support to the legal Venezuela’s authorities amid a flareup in the internal political crisis, provoked from the outside,” the Kremlin said in statement.

The European Union, which has imposed sanctions on Maduro’s government, noted that Venezuelans had “massively called for democracy and the possibility to freely determine their own destiny,” but stopped short of recognizing Guaido.

Maduro, in a rambling speech, dismissed Guaido’s inauguration and said he himself remained the country’s legitimate leader.

He has relied extensively on the military to maintain power amid annual inflation of nearly 2 million percent and an exodus of Venezuelan refugees into neighboring countries.

Guaido has said Maduro’s Jan. 10 inauguration to a second six-year term amounted to a usurpation of power, as the domestic opposition and numerous foreign governments regard his 2018 re-election as illegitimate. He cruised to victory over a lesser-known opponent amid low turnout and claims of fraud.

The vote was boycotted by Venezuela’s main opposition parties. They pointed out that Maduro’s two most popular rivals were banned from running, that the elections authority heavily favored him, and that the Socialist Party’s aggressive campaigning often bordered on vote-buying.

Guaido and allies argue that the presidency is vacant as a result, and note that the constitution calls for the head of congress to assume the interim presidency in such a situation.

That still leaves Guaido struggling against a state unwilling to recognize him and security forces that could jail him, as they did his mentor Leopoldo Lopez – who is under house arrest for leading anti-Maduro protests in 2014.

“While it’s true that Guaido has been recognized internationally, the real power of the state is still in the hands of Nicolas Maduro,” said Ronal Rodriguez, a political science and Venezuela expert at Rosario University in Bogota.

Protesters clashed with security forces on Wednesday night around the country and in both affluent and working class areas of Caracas, with some demonstrations spilling over into looting of nearby liquor stores and fast-food restaurants.

A total of 14 people have been killed in violence linked to this week’s protests, according to local rights groups Provea and the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in remarks to the Washington-based Organization of American States, on Thursday urged Latin American governments to recognize Guaido.

While the majority of OAS member countries – including Canada, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Argentina – have recognized Guaido, others including Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua have said they will stay neutral or continue to support Maduro.

Pompeo also wants to brief the U.N. Security Council on Venezuela on Saturday, South Africa’s U.N. envoy Jerry Matjila told reporters.

(Additional reporting by Robert Rampton in Washington, Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Luc Cohen in Bogota, Robin Emmott in Brussels, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Karin Strohecker in London and Maria Kiselyova in Moscow; Editing by Bill Trott and Alistair Bell)

Venezuela’s Guaido declares himself president, Maduro under pressure

Opposition supporters take part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Caracas, Venezuela January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Corina Pons, Angus Berwick and Mayela Armas

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president on Wednesday, while hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans poured onto the streets to demand an end to the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Opposition supporters take part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Caracas, Venezuela January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Opposition supporters take part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Caracas, Venezuela January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

In a statement minutes later, U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president.

Demonstrators clogged avenues in eastern Caracas, chanting “Get out, Maduro” and “Guaido, Presidente,” while waving national flags. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in several areas. A rally the night before left four people reported dead, an echo of tumultuous riots two years ago.

The opposition has been energized by young congress chief Guaido, who has led a campaign to declare Maduro a usurper and has promised a transition to a new government in a nation suffering a hyperinflationary economic collapse.

Guaido, in a speech before a cheering crowd, took an oath swearing himself in as interim president.

“I swear to assume all the powers of the presidency to secure an end of the usurpation,” he said.

He has said he would be willing to replace Maduro with the support of the military and to call free elections.

The Trump administration told U.S. energy companies it could impose sanctions on Venezuelan oil as soon as this week if the political situation worsens, according to sources.

Maduro was inaugurated on Jan. 10 to another term in office following a widely boycotted election last year that many foreign governments described as a fraudulent. His government accuses Guaido of staging a coup and has threatened him with jail.

ARMED FORCES

Any change in government in Venezuela will rest on a shift in allegiance within the armed forces. They have stood by Maduro through two waves of street protests and a steady dismantling of democratic institutions.

“We need freedom, we need this corrupt government to get out, we need to all unite, so that there is peace in Venezuela,” said Claudia Olaizola, a 54-year-old saleswoman near the march’s center in the eastern Chacao district, a traditional opposition bastion.

In a potent symbol of anger, demonstrators in the southern city of Puerto Ordaz on Tuesday toppled a statue of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, broke it in half and dangled part of it from a bridge.

A 16-year-old was shot to death at a protest on Tuesday in western Caracas, according to rights group Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict. Three people were shot dead on Tuesday night in southern Bolivar City during a looting of a grocery store that followed a nearby protest, Bolivar state governor Justo Noguera said in a telephone interview.

Maduro has presided over Venezuela’s spiral into its worst-ever economic crisis. His re-election in 2018 was widely viewed as a sham due to widespread election irregularities.

“We’ve come out to support the opposition and preserve the future of my son and my family, because we’re going hungry,” said Jose Barrientos, 31, an auto parts salesman in the poor west end of Caracas.

(Reporting by Corina Pons, Angus Berwick, Mayela Armas, Vivian Sequera, Deisy Buitrago and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas; Additional reporting by Francisco Aguilar in Barinas and Maria Ramirez in Puerto Ordaz, and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Alistair Bell)