Ahead of the mass street protests against Maduro on Wednesday, called by the opposition-led National Assembly, US Vice President Mike Pence released a video message reaffirming unwavering support for a regime change in Venezuela. Denouncing Maduro as “a dictator with no legitimate claim to power” who has “never won the presidency in a free and fair election,” Pence declared that time has come for the Venezuelan people to take the matters into their own hands, in a speech peppered with Spanish phrases.
“The United States supports the courageous decision by Juan Guaidó, the president of National Assembly, to assert that body’s constitutional powers, declare Maduro a usurper and call for the establishment of a transitional government,” Pence said.
Slamming the speech as shameless US meddling in his country’s internal affairs, Maduro in response promised his supporters to announce specific measures against Washington in the coming hours.
“Enough of aggressions and conspiracies, enough is enough!” said Maduro, rejecting the “imperialist interventionism” and open calls for coup d'état that he called unprecedented in the 200-year history of US-Venezuela relations.
"Mr. Pence doesn't have a job. Now he wants to come and run Venezuela, handing out instructions on what should happen" at the anti-government protests on Wednesday, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez noted, accusing the White House of openly "promoting instability and violence" in the Latin American country.
“Nobody in Latin America believes seriously that the US government is interested in democracy and freedom...because they have supported all the dictatorships that we had suffered in Latin America for decades,” Atilio Borón, professor of political science in the University of Buenos Aires, told RT.
“This is a desperate move, because they cannot defeat Maduro at the ballot box and they are promoting a sort of public insurrection which may backfire,” Boron added. “If they want to help, the first thing they should do is stop blocking the foreign relations with Venezuela and other countries which are ready to sell their goods to Venezuela.”