Washington, Feb 6 (IANS) Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido described his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House as very productive.
Wednesday’s closed-door meeting, came a day after Trump invited Guaido to attend his State of the Union address before Congress and praised him as Venezuela’s “legitimate” President, reports Efe news.
“On behalf of the Venezuelans we are here because on January 5, 7 and 15 we managed to resist the onslaught of a dictatorship, resist what was the attempt to take parliament by force,” Guaido told reporters here.
Guaido, who is also the President of Venezuela’s National Assembly, made the remarks shortly after meeting Trump, whose administration was the first to back him after he proclaimed himself Venezuela’s interim President January 23, 2019.
“We are reiterating all the time that we have the support of the world, which is not to Juan Guaido, it is to a cause, it is to democracy, it is to freedom, it is to the possibility of seeing a continent completely free, not giving refuge to terrorists, not giving refuge to drug-traffickers,” he added.
Guaido expressed gratitude at the “commitment” expressed by Trump, who in his third State of the Union address declared that “all Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom”.
“We face in Venezuela, as you know, a dictatorship that persecutes, that tortures, that kidnaps, that threatens with death, that attacked the lawmakers’ vehicle on January 15, which wants to destroy a country. We will not allow it,” said Guaido, who added that “concrete actions” against Maduro will be announced at the right time.
“We are looking for the actions, the opportunities, the tools to once again develop a country that fights,” the opposition leader said.
Guaido arrived on Wednesday at the South Portico entrance of the White House accompanied by the man he has designated as his interim foreign relations minister, Julio Borges.
–IANS
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