Juan Guaido is US lackey with no legitimacy in Venezuela or abroad: Expert
US President Donald Trump’s administration is providing support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, despite his lack of legitimacy, to maintain Washington’s "dominant position" in South America, a British political journalist says.
Guaido has been seeking to illegally replace Venezuela’s democratically-elected President Nicolas Maduro in a yearslong political stalemate.
He was a guest at the US Congress when Trump delivered his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
The US President described Guaido as “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela” and promised that Maduro’s “grip on tyranny will be smashed and broken.”
“The truth is that Juan Guaido has no political or electoral legitimacy whatsoever,” Marcus Papadopoulos, the founder and editor of Politics First magazine, told Press TV on Friday.
“He has no legitimacy under international law and he has no legitimacy under the Venezuelan constitution,” Papadopoulos said.
“The Americans are trying to overthrow Nicolas Maduro and install their puppet in Caracas, Juan Guaido, in order to cement Ameirca’s dominant position in Latin America,” he added.
Trump met with Guaido at the White House on Wednesday, with his office issuing a statement saying that the meeting "was a historic discussion about how we can work together with our partners in the region to achieve a democratic transition in Venezuela."
The US has backed Guaido as part of its efforts to topple the rule of Maduro, whom Trump calls a “socialist dictator who has destroyed his oil-rich nation’s once-vibrant economy.”
Guaido pushed the oil-rich Latin American country into political turmoil by rejecting the results of the 2018 presidential election after Maduro won nearly 70% of the vote.
He later declared himself “interim president” and was immediacy recognized by the Trump administration.
Although Guaido has the backing of the US and a number of countries, efforts to remove Maduro have stalled since he retains control of most state functions, and support of the powerful armed forces as well as that of allies China, Russia and Cuba.
In addition to sanctions, the Trump administration has tried to pressure Maduro’s foreign allies, including Cuba and Russia, to withdraw their support.
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