Versión Español
“Juan Guaido must dedicate every second, effort, and breath as the legitimate president of Venezuela to achieve a military intervention,” said writer and journalist Orlando Avendaño, editor-in-chief of the PanAm Post, to renowned Peruvian journalist Jaime Bayly.
In an interview with Bayly, Avendaño pointed out that the president of Venezuela and the National Assembly have moved away from the “mantra” where they had established the end of usurpation as a priority, and added that the interim government remains in a “very comfortable” position.
The editor of the PanAm Post celebrated the fact that the uprising of 30th April failed because he believes that a so-called political agreement would include the current Chavista Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, and the president of the illegitimate Supreme Court of Justice, Maikel Moreno.
The last year has been disappointing for Avendaño amid the immense potential that Venezuela had of regaining its freedom. However, he maintained that President Guaido still represents an “institutional platform.”
The journalist said that the process led by Guaido “has completely deviated from that mantra at the beginning of the year: end of usurpation, a transitional government, and free elections. This mantra blurred; they altered the formula. The end of usurpation is nowhere in sight. It seems that Venezuela is going to have elections. And the interim government ventured into an opaque and unfair dialogue process.”
During the interview, Avendaño said that the Venezuelan opposition had got itself in a state of “cohabitation” with the regime in a kind of “non-aggression pact”:
The tragedy of the country is obviously the responsibility of the regime. But Maduro does not enjoy the benefits of being an interim government. So there is a flow of funds that does not seem to stop. The United States continues to give funds, other countries continue to donate, Guaido continues to be recognized as the head of state, he sends representatives everywhere, photos are clicked. I think it’s a pretty comfortable position at this point.
According to Avendaño, the political leader Leopoldo Lopez is responsible for the interim president’s failures: “I believe that this year’s strategic errors have been his sole and exclusive responsibility. Especially because you have to assume that Leopoldo is the head of Guaido and the party.” Avendaño listed several of these mistakes: the failed attempts to bring in humanitarian aid, the military uprising of 30th April, and the dialogues in Oslo.
To Bayly’s question about “what Guaido hasn’t done and what he could do,” the Venezuelan journalist replied that the interim president has an obligation to work each day toward an international military coalition to help Venezuela regain democracy because the evidence confirms that “the only way Nicolas Maduro will leave is by force.”
The only way out of this tyrannical regime is “the use of internal or external force.” Avandaño reiterated that domestic force “cannot assert itself. We have only seen isolated expressions that have no way of articulating themselves. There is an overwhelmingly efficient intelligence system on top. So to continue betting on the supposed internal military breakdown, I see it as naive and foolish.”
The only option we have is foreign intervention. I believe that Guaido and the National Assembly say that the allies are unwilling to intervene. But I think that they just haven’t asked. The petition has to be explicit and public. If the allies are reluctant, well, the reality is that foreign intervention is the only alternative is the responsibility of achieving the same falls on the leader, who, in this case, is Juan Guaido.
Avendaño stressed that Guaido’s duty “is to dedicate every second, effort, and breath as the legitimate president of Venezuela to build that alternative. That would imply traveling outside Venezuela, negotiating economic agreements with different countries, meeting Donald Trump, and establishing the military alternative.”
