{"id":56594,"date":"2019-03-07T10:08:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T10:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/?p=56594"},"modified":"2019-03-07T10:08:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T10:08:14","slug":"venezuela-expels-german-envoy-for-backing-guaido","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/venezuela-expels-german-envoy-for-backing-guaido\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela expels German envoy for backing Guaido"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Venezuela expelled Germany’s ambassador Wednesday, hitting \nout at international support for opposition leader Juan Guaido as the US\n stepped up sanctions in a bid to force out his rival, President Nicolas\n Maduro, despite UN criticism.<\/strong>

The foreign ministry said\n Martin Kriener had 48 hours to leave for “interference” in Venezuela’s \ninternal affairs. He had greeted Guaido at Caracas airport on his return\n to the country on Monday. Guaido said in a speech to opposition \nlawmakers that Kriener’s expulsion will be seen “as a threat to the free\n world.” Kriener was among more than a dozen foreign representatives to \nwelcome the National Assembly leader recognized as interim president by \nmore than 50 countries but so far the only one deemed “persona non \ngrata”.

Kriener had helped to try to bring humanitarian aid to \nthe country, he said, adding: “It seems that the Maduro regime does not \nforgive anyone who wants to help Venezuela.” Berlin protested the \ndecision, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas saying that kicking Kriener out \nonly “aggravates the situation”. Caracas “is sending a message to the \ninternational community that such frontal support would have \nconsequences, but it also carries a risk,” said Venezuelan analyst \nMariano de Alba. Meanwhile Washington tightened the screws on its \ncampaign of sanctions to force Maduro from power, revoking the visas of \n77 people linked to the regime, including officials and their families. \n“We will continue to hold all of the Maduro regime accountable until \ndemocracy and libertad are fully restored,” US Vice President Mike Pence\n said in a speech.

Last week, Washington revoked 49 visas from \nVenezuelan figures. National Security Advisory John Bolton said the US \nalso is putting foreign financial institutions on notice that they will \nface sanctions if they facilitate “illegitimate transactions that \nbenefit Nicolas Maduro and his corrupt network.” The US is already \ntrying to cripple Maduro’s access to finances via sanctions on state oil\n company PDVSA and handing control to Guaido of Venezuelan bank accounts\n in the United States. However, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet \nsaid sanctions have worsened Venezuela’s crippling economic and \npolitical crisis, which has forced 2.7 million people to flee since \n2015.

“Venezuela clearly illustrates the way violations of civil \nand political rights including failure to uphold fundamental freedoms, \nand the independence of key institutions can accentuate a decline of \neconomic and social rights,” said Bachelet, a former president of Chile.\n “This situation has been exacerbated by sanctions,” Bachelet said in \nher annual report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Maduro has \nrepeatedly said his socialist government is the victim of an “economic \nwar” driven by US “imperialism” with sanctions the weapon of choice to \ntry to topple him.

Guaido, 35, returned home to a hero’s welcome \non Monday, having defied a ban on leaving the country to embark on a \n10-day tour of South American allies. He remains free despite the threat\n of arrest by the government. “They thought the pressure had reached its\n zenith, but it’s only just beginning,” Guaido told reporters. On \nTuesday, a national holiday, he met public sector union leaders. “Public\n sector workers have lost practically all their rights, we have no other\n option but to call for a civic strike,” said Guaido, without giving \nfurther details. Maduro, meanwhile, pressed his supporters to hold \n“anti-imperialist” marches Saturday to counter fresh protests planned by\n Guaido.

“Today more than ever, we are victorious against the \nconspiracy, against blackmail, while a crazy minority continues with \ntheir hatred,” he said in his first public comments since Guaido’s \nreturn. When he returned to Caracas his latest challenge to Maduro’s \nauthority Guaido announced to tens of thousands of supporters his plans \nfor new protests on Saturday. He has vowed to set up a transitional \ngovernment and hold new elections. As part of his challenge to Maduro, \nGuaido is attempting to take control of the state bureaucracy, which he \nconsiders to have been “kidnapped” through blackmail and persecution. \nUnions from the oil industry, basic services, state banks and local \ngovernment took part in Tuesday’s meeting, union leader Ana Yanez said. \n“The public administration is practically paralyzed. In the town halls, \npeople only go to work three days a week and even then barely half the \nday,” said Yanez.

In a speech at the mausoleum of his predecessor\n Hugo Chavez on the sixth anniversary of the socialist firebrand’s \ndeath, Maduro called on his supporters to take to the streets on \nSaturday. That date marks “four years since” then-US president Barack \nObama first announced sanctions against the socialist government. Maduro\n has consistently called his own counter-demonstration every time Guaido\n announces a protest. During his travels, Guaido met Pence and the \nleaders of Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuela expelled Germany’s ambassador Wednesday, hitting out at international support for opposition leader Juan Guaido as the US stepped up sanctions in a bid to force out his rival, President Nicolas Maduro, despite UN criticism. The foreign ministry said Martin Kriener had 48 hours to leave for “interference” in Venezuela’s internal affairs. He had greeted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56596,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56594\/revisions\/56596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}