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Venezuelan Opposition Leader Says Peaceful Transition Possible

by VOA News

   Venezuela's opposition leader who has declared himself the country's
   legitimate president said he believes a peaceful transition from
   President Nicolas Maduro can be achieved.

   "We must use great pressure for a dictator to leave, install a
   transitional government and have free elections," Juan Guaido said
   Monday in a CNN interview that aired Tuesday morning.

   Guaido's remarks came one day after the United States applied more
   pressure on Maduro's socialist government by imposing broad sanctions
   on PDVSA, Venezuela's government-owned oil company.

   The Trump administration said it imposed the sanctions to preserve the
   assets for the Venezuelan people. The U.S. has recognized Guaido as the
   country's interim leader and condemned the 2018 election, in which
   Maduro won another term, as a charade that was neither free nor fair.

   U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is meeting at the White House Tuesday
   with Carlos Alfredo Vecchio, appointed by Guaido to be Venezuela's
   representative in the United States.

   The sanctions announced Monday will freeze any assets the state-owned
   PDVSA has in the United States. U.S. firms and citizens are barred from
   doing business with it.

   PDVSA's U.S.-based subsidiary, Citgo, which refines Venezuelan oil and
   sells Citgo brand gasoline in the U.S., will continue to operate as
   usual. But any money Citgo earns will be placed in a blocked account.

   Maduro said the United States is trying to "steal" Citgo from
   Venezuela.

   "I have given specific instructions to the head of PDVSA to launch
   political and legal action in U.S. and international courts to defend
   the property and assets of Citgo," he said on Venezuelan television.

   The embattled president also demanded that his U.S. counterpart keep
   his "hands off" Venezuela, and warned that if violence breaks out in
   the country "the blood that could flow in Venezuela will be blood that
   will be on your hands."

   Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Maduro and his allies have long
   used the state oil company as a vehicle for corruption and
   embezzlement. He said Venezuela is rich in oil and there is no reason
   for its people to suffer thorough economic disaster and severe food and
   fuel shortages.

   PDVSA is the country's main source of income and cash from the United
   States. Venezuela's oil industry has long relied on the U.S.

   Mnuchin said Venezuela can get relief from the sanctions when control
   of the oil company is turned over to Guaido.

   US-certified

   In other developments, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday it has
   certified the authority of Guaido to control specific Venezuelan
   government assets held by any U.S.-insured bank. State Department
   spokesman Robert Palladino said the certification "will help
   Venezuela's legitimate government safeguard those assets for the
   benefit of the Venezuelan people."

   Guaido declared himself president last week after his
   opposition-controlled National Assembly declared Maduro's presidency
   illegitimate.

   Guaido called on Venezuelans to mount a peaceful, two-hour, midday
   protest Wednesday "to demand that the armed forces side with the
   people." He is offering amnesty to soldiers who back his movement and
   reject Maduro's socialist government.

   Maduro insisted Sunday that the military is on his side as he watched
   military exercises using Russian-built rocket-propelled grenades and
   anti-aircraft machine guns.

   Maduro said he wants peace, but also announced more military games for
   February. He says they will be "the most important in the history of
   Venezuela."

   The collapse of world energy prices, corruption and failed socialist
   policies have created an economic and humanitarian crisis in oil-rich
   Venezuela.

   Food, fuel and medicine are in extremely short supply. Inflation is out
   of control. Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country, and Maduro
   has shown little tolerance for opposition-led protests.

   Maduro has blamed his country's woes on the United States, which he
   accuses of working with the opposition to topple the government.

   He has called world leaders who want him gone "Trump sycophants."