Maduro Slams Trump for Meeting with Venezuela’s Opposition Figure

Trump met with Guaido at the White House on Wednesday, with his office issuing a statement saying that the meeting "was a historic discussion about how we can work together with our partners in the region to achieve a democratic transition in Venezuela", World News reported.

Guaido had also been invited to the House chamber on Capitol Hill to be present for Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday. Trump has described the Venezuela’s opposition leader as the legitimate president of Venezuela, further expressing his support for Guaido.

Maduro, who was speaking in a nationally televised address, denounced the meeting and said that Trump was “taking the United States toward a high-level conflict with Venezuela”.

“I call on the honest sectors of the United States to confront this interventionist, illegal, and immoral policy of Donald Trump against the noble and peaceful people of Venezuela,” he added, warning Trump that promoting Guaido and attempting to impose him on the Venezuelans will certainly bring “failure” to the White House.

Guaido is held responsible for causing political crisis in Venezuela when he unilaterally declared himself “interim president” of the country in January last year, rejecting the outcome of the 2018 election, which Maduro had won. Guaido also later launched an abortive coup against the elected government.

Guaido’s self-proclamation as president and his coup received backing from Washington. Caracas has announced that election results must be respected, but it has refrained from arresting Guaido over the coup with lenience.

Washington, which has imposed several rounds of harsh sanctions against Caracas amid an economic crisis, has been pushing to topple Maduro in part by establishing a representative office called Washington’s Venezuela Affairs Unit (VAU) based in Colombia to keep in touch with Guaido.

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