Absurdities With Respect to International Law
Berlin declares elections in Venezuela to be "neither free nor fair," continues to recognize a failed putschist as the country's "president".
BERLIN/CARACAS (Own report) - In the aftermath of the elections in Venezuela, the German government persists in recognizing the self-proclaimed president and failed putschist, Juan Guaidó, as the country's head of state. "Our support" for "interim president" Guaidó will continue, Miguel Berger, Minister of State in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. Guaidó, who declared himself "president" on January 23, 2019 - and whose calls for a coup d'état in the months that followed went unheeded despite the massive support of western powers - is, in the meantime, seen as increasingly marginalized among Venezuela's right-wing opposition. In view of the failure of the coup attempts, the former Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, called on the EU to change course in its relations to Venezuela. Continuing to recognize neither the elected President Nicolás Maduro nor the elected parliament but instead the non-elected Guaidó, "can lead to the greatest absurdity that the history of international law has known," Zapatero warns. Read more
CARACAS/BERLIN (Own report) - Serious allegations are being raised against a partner cooperating with Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FDP) in the context of an attempted putsch: The US Bloomberg news agency has reported that opposition officers had planned to storm the presidential palace in Caracas, capture President Nicolás Maduro and stop the May 20 presidential elections. The conspiracy was discovered and several putschists were arrested in mid-May. According to Venezuela's military prosecutor’s investigations, an opposition politician María Corina Machado was involved in the attempted coup. Machado, who is said to be very popular within the military, denies the allegations. She is the leader of the "Vente Venezuela" party, which joined the "RELIAL" network last fall. The network was initiated and is backed by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FDP) and includes several parties who, in the past, have overthrown or attempted to overthrow democratically elected governments, for example in Honduras (2009) and in Paraguay (2012). Read more