Venezuelan presidential crisis
Political crisis in Venezuela from 2019 to 2023 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Venezuelan presidential crisis was a political crisis concerning the leadership and the legitimate president of Venezuela between 2019 and 2023, with the nation and the world divided in support for Nicolás Maduro or Juan Guaidó.
Venezuelan presidential crisis | |||
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Part of the crisis in Venezuela | |||
Date | 10 January 2019 (2019-01-10) – 5 January 2023 (2023-01-05) (3 years, 11 months and 26 days) | ||
Location | |||
Caused by |
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Goals |
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Methods | Protests, support campaigns, foreign diplomatic pressure and international sanctions | ||
Resulted in | Status quo
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Venezuela is engulfed in a political and economic crisis which has led to more than seven million people leaving the country since 2015. The process and results of the 2018 presidential elections were widely disputed.[1][2] The opposition-majority National Assembly declared Maduro a usurper of the presidency on the day of his second inauguration and disclosed a plan to set forth its president Guaidó as the succeeding acting president of the country under article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution.[2][5] A week later, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice declared that the presidency of the National Assembly was the "usurper" of authority and declared the body to be unconstitutional.[2] Minutes after Maduro took the oath as president, the Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution in a special session of its Permanent Council declaring Maduro's presidency illegitimate and urging new elections.[6] Special meetings of the OAS on 24 January and in the United Nations Security Council on 26 January were held but no consensus was reached. Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres called for dialogue.[7] During the 49th General Assembly of the Organization of American States on 27 June, Guaidó's presidency was recognized by the organization.[8] Guaidó and the National Assembly declared he was acting president and swore himself in on 23 January.[4]
At his peak, Guaidó was recognized as legitimate by about 60 countries, despite never running as president; Maduro by about 20 countries.[9][10][11] However, Guaidó's international support waned over time.[12] Internationally, support followed geopolitical lines, with Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Turkey supporting Maduro, while the majority of Western and Latin American countries supported Guaidó as acting president.[9][13][14] Support for Guaidó began to decline when a military uprising attempt in April 2019 failed to materialize.[15][16] Following the failed uprising, representatives of Guaidó and Maduro began mediation, with the assistance of the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution.[17] After the second meeting in Norway, no deal was reached.[18] In July 2019 negotiations started again in Barbados with representatives from both sides.[19][20][21] In September, Guaidó announced the end of dialogue following a forty-day absence by the Maduro government as a protest against the recent sanctions by the United States. In March 2020, the United States proposed a transitional government that would exclude both Maduro and Guaidó from the presidency.[22] U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that sanctions did not apply to humanitarian aid during the coronavirus pandemic health emergency and that the United States would lift all sanctions if Maduro agreed to organize elections that did not include himself.[23] Guaidó accepted the proposal,[24] while Venezuela's foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, rejected it.[25]
By January 2020, efforts led by Guaidó to create a transitional government had been unsuccessful and Maduro continued to control Venezuela's state institutions.[26][27][28] In January 2021, the European Union stopped recognizing Guaidó as president, but still did not recognize Maduro as the legitimate president;[29] the European Parliament reaffirmed its recognition of Guaidó as president,[30][31] and the EU threatened with further sanctions.[29] After the announcement of regional elections in 2021, Guaidó announced a "national salvation agreement" and proposed the negotiation with Maduro with a schedule for free and fair elections, with international support and observers, in exchange for lifting international sanctions.[32]
In December 2022, three of the four main opposition political parties (Justice First, Democratic Action and A New Era) backed and approved a reform to dissolve the interim government and create a commission of five members to manage foreign assets, as deputies sought a united strategy ahead of the next Venezuelan presidential election scheduled for 2024,[33][34] stating that the interim government had failed to achieve the goals it had set.[35]