President Nicolas Maduro announced that he was cutting all diplomatic relations with the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump recognized opposition leader Juan Gauido as interim president, after the legislator self-appointed himself as president of the country.
“They went too far. I have decided to break all diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist government of the United States. Out! They can all leave,” Maduro said as he gave a speech from the presidential palace in Caracas. “They aim to rule Venezuela from Washington.”
President Nicolas Maduro gave U.S. personnel in Venezuela 72-hours to leave the country, in what Maduro explains “their President Donald Trump, backed the coup d’etat attempt led by Guaido”.
“Venezuela is respected! Neither coup nor interventionism. Venezuela wants peace, wants progress,” said Nicolas Maduro rejecting any coup and interventionist attempts in the country.
The governments of Mexico, Bolivia, Turkey and Russia have stated that they recognize Bolivarian President Nicolas Maduro Moros as the constitutional and democratically elected president of Venezuela.
“Don’t trust the gringo empire. That’s what drives their interest - the desire for Venezuelan oil, gas, and gold. These do not belong to you, they belong to the sovereign people of Venezuela,” warned President Maduro to the Venezuelan people.
Support for Gauido from Latin America
Supporting Guaido’s ‘self-appointment” as interim president is also backed by Brazil and eleven countries that make up the Lima group: Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Canada, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica.
The Lima Group was created in 2017 to help solve the Venezuelan crisis. The group issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon is support of “the beginning of the process of democratic transition in Venezuela and condemn the acts of violence that have occurred in that nation”.
Luis Almagro, general secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS), also pronounced his support for Gauido.
On January 9, the Lima Group refused to recognize the new six-year term that Maduro began that day. In response, Caracas sent a diplomatic threat and summoned the nations that turned their backs on it, warning that, if they did not rectify, it would take “the most” crude and urgent “diplomatic measures.”
