The European Union, which aligns with the United States – and sometimes even precedes them – has published a new list of Venezuelan political figures whose accounts, if any, it has blocked [1].
Alongside a list of Chavistas, the EU has for the first time included leaders of the democratic opposition, considered guilty for failing to re-elect Juan Guaidó as President of the National Assembly, therefore barring him from becoming interim President of the Republic as foreseen by the Constitution, according to Brussels’ interpretation.
To legitimize its decision, the Union argues that several MPs were refused entry to parliament on the day of the election. However, these same MPs were proven guilty of having taken part in the failed coup attempt of 30 April 2019, which they did not contest. As a result, they were legally stripped of their right to exercise their mandate, with the consent of the nationalist opposition.
Juan Guaidó, whose popularity within his own camp has significantly waned, knew that he could not be elected without their support. He therefore staged a couple of scenes where he can be seen trying to enter the Assembly premises by climbing over the garden fence (whereas he had previously gone in through the door), and then leaving with the group of former MPs in order to be “elected” by them at the headquarters of the opposition newspaper El Nacional. The next day he returned to the empty parliament hall to pose for a few more pictures in his glory (see below).
The three anti-Chavistas sanctioned by the EU are:
Luis Eduardo Parra Rivero (President of the National Assembly)
Franklyn Leonardo Duarte (First Vice-President of the National Assembly)
José Gregorio Noriega Figueroa (Second Vice-President of the National Assembly).
Only too happy to come to the aid of his opponents, constitutionally-elected president Nicolás Maduro denounced the stupidity and the interference of the European Union, whose representative in Caracas, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, he promptly expelled.
At the same time, he reserved the right to expel Spanish ambassador Jesús Silva who, according to the Wall Street Journal of 26 June, participated in the most recent failed coup attempt (Operation Gideon). Juan Guaidó immediately lashed out against the US daily newspaper for promoting according to him “the propaganda of the regime” (sic).