The end of Guaidó: this decision would distance him from politics

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In a decision announced by the controller of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó could not hold public office for 15 years

The Venezuelan regime gave an ultimatum yesterday to try to contain the influence of self-proclaimed President Juan Guaidó. Elvis Amoroso, Comptroller General of Venezuela, announced the disqualification for 15 years of the functions of Guaidó. Among the reasons of this institution are "the findings detected during the substantiation of the proceedings and the facts evidenced make presumed the commission of criminal offenses by Juan Guaidó, which have harmed the Venezuelan people and the public patrimony, creating a damage to social peace, to democratic stability and to the constitutional order ".

Leer en español: ¿No más Guaidó? Esta decisión lo alejaría de la política

Mainly, Amoroso referred to the situation of more than 90 trips abroad Guaidó would have donde since 2015 (with a cost higher than 310 million bolivars), a cost that has not yet been clarified. In addition, the comptroller announced that the sanctions imposed "have nothing to do with the current situation of the country" and asked "international organizations not to show solidarity automatically with the leader of Voluntad Popular, to go before the Comptroller and find out".

Although Amoroso did not specify an exact date for the disqualification of Guaidó and asked that both agencies and countries not intervene in the situation, his statements sparked international debate.

For the interim president, the comptroller's statements are a "farce" and stated that the disqualification does not exist because there is no comptroller, "there is no comptroller, there is no disqualification, the Venezuelan Parliament is the only one that can appoint a comptroller", referring to the appointment of Amoroso by the National Constituent Assembly and not by the entity in charge: the National Assembly, according to EFE.

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Is the sanction valid?

According to several experts, the measures of the opposition are "desperate". The decision evidences Nicolás Maduro is demonstrating that he still has power over the country, as El Tiempo explains.

For the constitutional lawyer, and in dialogue with the same media, Luis Salamanca, it is a power struggle in which Guaidó "has too much power because he is president of the Assembly, but above all because of international support he has in head of the USA and Maduro is still in control of almost every institution in the country and the Army."

In addition, Guaidó has a parliamentary protection, as this institution is responsible for regulating that the development of an official is not affected by this type of decision. "The process does not comply with the Constitution because a comptroller does not have the capacity to politically disable a public official in Venezuela," according to José Vicente Haro, a constitutional lawyer, in statements given to CNN.

However, for the deputy of the National Assembly in exile, Julio Borges and through his Twitter account, said that the regime's decision shows that "Nicolás Maduro does not want free elections." The foregoing is seconded by Haro, who in dialogue with El Nacional, said that, "in the next few days an office may be addressed to the National Electoral Council so that the agency issues a code in its electoral register with the intention that Guaidó cannot run as a candidate for upcoming elections."

The international response

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, announced on his Twitter account that "all the illegal actions of the usurping dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro" are unknown.

In addition, the United States described the action as "absurd and ridiculous" according to the statements of Robert Palladino, spokesman of the Department of State. Spain insisted on holding elections in Venezuela and after the meeting of the International Contact Group (GCI), "condemned the recent decision of the Comptroller General of Venezuela to disqualify Juan Guaidó (…) that type of decisions further undermine the efforts to achieve a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis in Venezuela," according to the same media.

Meanwhile, Juan Guaidó concentrated on presenting his Country Plan, called "Operation Freedom," which aims to recover electricity service and other public services, which have been intermittent in almost all of Venezuela.

LatinAmerican Post | Laura Viviana Guevara Muñoz
Translated from "¿No más Guaidó? Esta decisión lo alejaría de la política"