Americans and Europeans don’t have a clue about this. It was “news” when we wrote about it. Juan Guaidó, the boy who would be king in Venezuela if the U.S. had its way, was forced to flee the country last week, just months after his so-called “interim government” was disbanded.

Guaidó was booted out of Colombia while he attempted to attend a conference in Bogotá after crossing into the country by foot. He said his arrest was imminent in Venezuela and he wanted to attend a summit hosted by Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, that intended to focus on the region. 

WLRN reported that Guaidó said he is concerned about his family’s safety and insisted that he does not intend to stay in the U.S. He did tell reporters that he hopes to meet with members of Congress next week and said he will stress the U.S. not to trust Petro to take any kind of leadership role in mediating tensions in his country. 

“President Petro has put himself on the side of the Maduro dictatorship,” he said.

He landed in Miami in the early morning hours and told reporters that his life is threatened by President Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Reports noted that his critics believe his “foray” into Colombia was a last-ditch effort to remain relevant.

The Biden administration seemed to have changed its tone vis-à-vis Venezuela and eased its oil sanctions against the country. (See “AFTER DESTROYING VENEZUELA’S ECONOMY, NOW U.S. WANTS THEIR OIL”15 Mar 2002, “BIDEN RENEWS ‘STATE OF EMERGENCY’ SANCTIONS ON VENEZUELA” 9 Mar 2021, and “BIDEN RECOGNIZES VENEZUELA’S GUAIDÓ AS PRESIDENT” 26 Jan 2021.)

Indeed, Colombia said Guaidó entered the country in an “irregular manner,” which meant he was not approved by its immigration authorities, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bogotá said Guaidó left the country on his own accord and with the help of the U.S.

“We haven’t closed the doors to anyone,” Álvaro Leyva, the country’s foreign minister, said, according to the WSJ. “This is not a country that expels. It is a country that seeks to enforce the law.”

Former President Trump anointed him the president of Venezuela in 2019, and in January 2021, President Joe Biden also said the U.S. will continue to recognize him as the country’s rightful president. The U.S. called Maduro’s 2018 election win a “sham.”

Guaidó, who was president of the national assembly at the time, was the country’s Number Two and was tasked with holding new elections. The WSJ noted that Maduro benefited from the support of Cuba, Iran, Russia, and China. About 60 countries agreed with the U.S. that the election was a fraud.

Guaidó’s fate seems sealed at around that time when he failed to get the backing of the Venezuelan people or its military. 

The European Union also sent a clear message to Guaidó when it broke from the U.S. and referred to him as one of the “political actors striving to bring democracy to Venezuela” instead of the country’s interim president.

The snub was seen as a message to Guaidó that European leaders were growing impatient with President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power in Caracas. A senior diplomat told the Financial Times that Guaidó is now considered to be “primus inter pares,” which translates to first among equals among the country’s population.

TRENDPOST: Venezuela is an example of how—regardless of political party affiliation—American presidents simply cannot resist interfering in elections in foreign countries, especially when Washington’s man loses. 

The U.S. media is doing its best to cover up for the diplomatic disaster caused by the Trump and Biden administrations in attempting regime change. 

Trump hit Venezuela with sanctions to overthrow the Maduro government. But countries like Russia have provided Venezuela with billions in loans.

The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how the U.S. government doesn’t care how many people have to starve when it comes to politics. 

We noted in January 2020 that the severe U.S. sanctions “crippled the Venezuelan economy in an attempt to initiate a popular rebellion to overthrow the Maduro government, and, as with similar sanctions against Iran, the sanctions will cripple citizens while failing to foment regime change.”

Before Trump’s Crusade to overthrow the Maduro government, in 2015, the Obama administration officially declared Venezuela to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security, officially declaring: “We are committed to advancing respect for human rights, safeguarding democratic institutions, and protecting the U.S. financial system from the illicit financial flows from public corruption in Venezuela.”

(See “VENEZUELA: GUAIDÓ DOWN, POMPEO PUMPS HIM UP” 21 January 2020.) 

The elections in Venezuela were regarded as among those closely monitored and legitimate. Several international monitoring organizations observed the elections and affirmed their fairness.

In January 2019 we wrote:

“Absent from all of the media coverage and analysis by their ‘experts,’ is the fact that the United States has absolutely no moral or legal right to intervene and dictate how other countries choose their leaders.

“Yet, this is the same America that condemns other nations for the same actions that it takes. For example, the U.S. and its media have continually condemned Russia for its involvement in Ukraine, a neighboring country. And both Iran and Russia are chastised for their involvement in Syria, even though they were invited to intervene by the nation’s president.

“And this is the same America that is overtly “meddling” in Venezuela’s elections, while condemning Russia non-stop for allegedly meddling into its 2016 elections.”

TRENDPOST: This 12 January 2021 Trends Journal article provides an overview, trends analysis, and trend forecasts for the U.S.-led attempt to overthrow the democratically elected president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro: 

EUROPEAN UNION SNUBS GUAIDÓ

Go back to January 2019. Remember the big geopolitical news?

With Nicholas Maduro poised to be sworn in as President of Venezuela on 10 January, the U.S. implemented a coup attempt with its coronation of Juan Guaidó as the country’s interim leader… in effect dismissing Maduro from office.

President Trump’s administration launched the propaganda campaign branding Maduro’s victory as “heavily rigged,” “fraudulent,” “a sham,” “a joke” and “a disgrace.”

But, in fact, the elections in Venezuela were regarded as among those closely monitored and legitimate. Several international monitoring organizations observed the elections and affirmed their fairness. For example, the African Nations’ delegation stated:

“The Venezuelan people who chose to participate in the electoral process of May 20 were not subject to any external pressures… As such, we implore the international community to abide by international law and the principles of self-determination and recognize what we consider to be a free, fair, fully transparent, and sovereign election.”

Despite this proclamation, President Trump declared, “Maduro is no longer president of Venezuela. I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.”

Vice President Mike Pence weighed in with a video stating, “On behalf of the American people, we say: estamos con ustedes. We are with you. We stand with you, and we will stay with you until Democracy is restored.” 

To bring democracy to Venezuela, the Trump administration hired Elliott Abrams, Iraqi warmonger/cheerleader/criminal and champion of Latin American death squads that slaughtered tens of thousands.

Fast Forward

As we had forecast since the attempted American-led coup d’état that many of Washington’s allies supported, Guido did not have the backing of the Venezuelan people nor the military, thus the U.S. would fail in their effort to overthrow the Maduro government. 

The European Union sent a clear message to opposition leader Juan Guaidó last week after it referred to him as one of the “political actors striving to bring democracy to Venezuela” instead of the country’s interim president, according to a report.

The Financial Times reported the snub was seen as a message to Guaidó that European leaders are growing impatient with President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power in Caracas. A senior diplomat told the paper Guaidó is now considered to be “primus inter pares,” which translates to first among equals among the country’s population. 

Guaidó, who has seen his opinion polls in the country sink within the past year, has been recognized by 60 countries, including the U.S., as Caracas’s legitimate leader. But he has been faced with a lack of support at home and increasingly abroad. Axios reported in July that President Trump indicated he did not care either way about Guaido, despite the support he received from Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The FT reported that Guaidó was not formally viewed by the EU as the country’s interim president due to objections by Italy and Cyprus, but he benefited from the same treatment by other members that an interim president would receive.

Allies of Maduro officially took control of the country’s National Assembly last week, and they seem to be consolidating power. Guaidó couldn’t successfully unify the opposition and has been left with no real power. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement, “President Guaidó and the National Assembly are the only democratic representatives of the Venezuelan people as recognized by the international community.”

TREND FORECAST: The sanctions President Trump’s administration imposed on Venezuela in its effort to overthrow the Maduro government have caused deep economic pain among the nation’s population and economy. We have written extensively on this subject in the Trends Journal since the U.S. launched the coup attempt, which was supported in the most part by both the U.S. Congress and the media.

With Guaidó all but gone and Joe Biden in as President, while it would appear that tensions between the two nations will ease, considering Biden’s record of being pro-war and supporting foreign entanglements, we hesitate to forecast warming relations between the two nations.