Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is welcomed home with a huge hug from his mother as he returns to challenge President Nicolas Maduro despite the threat of arrest
Norka Márquez, the mother of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido could not contain her joy as she welcomed her son home on Monday, waiting with a huge hug as Guaido landed at the country’s main airport, about 25 miles from Caracas.
The opposition leader, despite the threat of arrest from President Nicolas Maduro, returned to his homeland. Maduro had claimed that the self-proclaimed interim president was barred from leaving the country when he traveled to Colombia almost two weeks ago
Guaido has been looking to establish ways to deliver international humanitarian aid into Venezuelan before Maduro closed off all of the nation’s borders.
In his spent nearly two weeks outside of Venezuela, Guaido met with top leaders of neighboring countries in Latin America and the United States as he sought support to bring an end to Maduro’s government.
The leader of the National Assembly is recognized by 50 countries, including the U.S., Canada, and the Lima Group as Venezuela’s leader.
Declarations made by Maduro during an interview with ABC News on February 26 placed a target on Guaido’s back as the Venezuelan President ruled that his opponent would be arrested upon his return, having traveled across the Venezuelan-Colombian border to coordinate the transportation of international humanitarian aid but Maduro blocked it from crossing the nation’s aerial, maritime and land borders.
“He can leave and return, but he will have to see the face of justice, because Justice had forbidden him to leave the country,’ Maduro said.
‘You have to respect the laws.’
The threats fell on deaf ears as Guaido returned home and cleared the customs center at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, located south of the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
On Tuesday, Guaido met with public employee unions to drum up support in order to place additional pressure on President Maduro.
He said police officials were among those at a meeting that he held with leaders of public employee unions, which rely heavily on subsidies from Maduro’s government to get by in a country suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of food and other necessities.
‘We’re not going to collaborate any longer with the dictatorship,’ Guaido said after a meeting at the offices of an engineers’ association in Caracas.
Maduro countered on state television by declaring that in honor of his predecessor Hugo Chavez, he would overcome any attempts by the opposition to unseat him from power.
‘We will defeat them. We will do it for Chavez. We will do it for Venezuela,’ Maduro said.
