Nicolás Maduro continues to repress democracy in Venezuela, and international leaders are noticing.
Juan Guaidó was legitimately re-elected as president of Venezuela’s National Assembly on January 5, even though Maduro’s National Guard blocked Guaidó and the majority of assembly members from entering the Federal Legislative Palace.
Foreign leaders were quick to speak out that day against Maduro’s authoritarian tactics, as reflected in the statements below, most translated from Spanish.
On January 7, the National Guard once again tried to block Guaidó and other members from entering the National Assembly chambers to convene the weekly parliamentarian session, but they pushed back and successfully entered the building.
“The Argentine government has been trying by all means to make dialogue and agreements the path for the full recovery of a functioning democratic Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. To impede the operation of the legislative assembly by force is to condemn oneself to international isolation. We reject this action and urge the Venezuelan executive to accept that the road is exactly the opposite. The assembly must elect its president with full legitimacy.”
— Felipe Solá, minister of foreign affairs, international trade and worship of the Argentine Republic
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the government of Colombia, categorically rejects impeding the access of legitimately elected deputies, as well as the independent media, to the premises of the National Assembly.”
— Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“Today’s attack against [Juan Guaidó] is a new example of the authoritarianism of the Maduro regime. It takes Venezuela further away from the democratic path that the entire world predicts. Our solidarity with the democratic forces of our brother country!”
— Lenín Moreno, constitutional president of the Republic of Ecuador
“Mexico votes to allow the National Assembly of Venezuela to democratically elect its board of directors in accordance with the process established in the constitution of that sister country. The legitimate functioning of the legislative power is an inviolable pillar of democracies.”
— Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“The events that took place in Venezuela, preventing the normal functioning of the National Assembly, constitute a new blow to democratic institutions, demonstrating once again the maneuvers of the Maduro regime to centralize power, violating the popular will.”
— Luis Lacalle Pou, president-elect of the Republic of Uruguay
“The United States will continue to support President Guaidó and the Venezuelan people, and we will continue to rally all other freedom-loving nations across the globe to do that same thing.”
— Michael R. Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state
