Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ramped up a legal battle on Thursday against self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido to oust him, while the opposition claimed international community had pledged humanitarian aid worth more than $100 million for Venezuela.
Venezuelan opposition Guaido, who alleged Maduro is an illegitimate leader as he had won a sham vote, is currently trying to grab control over OPEC, oil sector, from Maduro and deliver humanitarian aids to the country’s citizen suffering from medicine and food shortages.
According to Reuters news reports, Maduro has claimed this is a part of a strategy to carry out a United States-backed coup and also vowed to remain in power, despite of 50 nations recognizing Guaido as president of Venezuela.
Country’s chief state prosecutor Tarek Saab has said on Thursday his office has opened a probe into new opposition-appointed directors at state-run oil firm PDVSA and Citgo. Saad said the opposition had “grotesquely made circus-style appointments” to please foreign interests and destabilize the nation.
According to his office’s Twitter account, Saab said, “The only directors legitimately appointed to the boards of PDVSA and its subsidiaries are those … who have been appointed by the executive.”
A top opposition lawmaker said the transitional government should include ruling “Chavismo” movement’s members and military leadership, to guarantee stability for new elections. Chavismo is a movement founded by former president Hugo Chavez, who was succeeded by Maduro following Chavez’ death in 2013 from cancer.
Guaido’s government would have only 13 months to hold a fresh presidential election from the day Maduro will steps down from his post, the second vice president of congress Stalin Gonzalez told Reuters.
In an interview, Gonzalez said, “We need to give space to sectors of Chavismo that are not Maduro because we need political stability.”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has on Thursday said Guaido’s self-declaration as president was “absolutely absurd” as Guaido had “control of nothing”. At the United Nations, he told reporters, “In Venezuela, there’s only one government – the government of President Maduro – so no one can give deadlines, especially this man.”