Venezuela’s most outstanding opposition chief, Juan Guaidó, mentioned late Monday that he had been compelled out of Colombia, hours after crossing the border into the nation after receiving threats from the Venezuelan authorities.
Talking in a video posted on Twitter, Mr. Guaidó mentioned he had entered Colombia with plans to satisfy with political representatives who had gathered to debate the way forward for Venezuela. However moderately than welcome him, he mentioned, the Colombians had kicked him out.
“The persecution of the dictatorship has prolonged, sadly, to Colombia at the moment,” he mentioned, talking from what seemed to be an airplane. He mentioned he was on his approach to the US.
Late Monday, Colombia’s international ministry issued an announcement saying that Mr. Guaidó was in Bogotá “irregularly,” and that migration officers had taken him to the airport “with the intention of verifying his departure on a industrial airline to the US.”
A consultant from the federal government of Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, didn’t reply to a request for extra data.
In 2019, Mr. Guaidó rose from little-known Venezuelan lawmaker to nationwide hero after declaring Mr. Maduro an illegitimate ruler and himself the interim head of state. On the time, he posed probably the most vital menace to a deeply undemocratic and unpopular president, who had helped plunge Venezuela into an financial and humanitarian disaster.
Dozens of countries acknowledged Mr. Guaidó because the nation’s new chief, most prominently the US. However Mr. Guaidó in the end didn’t oust Mr. Maduro, and late final yr, his personal colleagues within the opposition voted to dissolve his interim authorities and take away his title as interim president. Their evaluation was that the parallel-government technique wouldn’t have the ability to create political change, and {that a} new path was wanted.
Mr. Maduro has jailed a whole bunch of political opponents over time, and many have already fled for different nations, together with Colombia. However Mr. Guaidó remained in Caracas along with his household, below the idea that arresting such a outstanding chief would make Mr. Maduro even much less widespread at residence and overseas.
