Juan Guaidó has been interim president of Venezuela since January 23, 2019, and was recently re-elected president of the National Assembly.
In 2019, nearly 60 countries recognized him as the interim president, rejecting the illegitimate second term of Nicolás Maduro.
Guaidó has appointed more than 30 country representatives and three representatives to international organizations in the last year.
In that same time, his interim government has prioritized responding to the growing humanitarian crisis, which Maduro continues to deny, by rallying the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to a public with little access to food and health care.
From February until June, Guaidó’s team organized more than 50 Health Days, providing 130,000 people with health services. An additional initiative, called Hygiene Days, delivered hygiene kits to more than 36,000 people across Venezuela.
Guaidó’s team continues to carry out daily humanitarian visits. Volunteers go door-to-door to deliver food and health supplies to impoverished Venezuelans and, as a result, the team reaches about 100 Venezuelans each day.
Guaidó himself comes from a modest background. He grew up in the small and economically depressed state of Vargas, where his parents were part of the working class.
After devastating floods left many dead in 1999 — including some of his friends — and the national government did little to help the crisis, Guaidó was inspired to get involved with student government. From there, he worked his way into local government before eventually being elected as a National Assembly member in 2015.
“I saw that if I wanted a better future for my country I had to roll up my sleeves and give my life to public service,” Guaidó stated in a New York Times opinion piece the week after becoming interim president. “Our strength, and the salvation of all Venezuela, is in unity.”
