Maduro Says US Authorities Paid $800mln to Venezuela Opposition over Two Years
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The administration of US President Donald Trump paid Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido $ 800 million over two years. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced this on Sunday.
"Donald Trump created Juan Guaido, his team created this monster. Within two years, they transferred $ 800 million to him," said Maduro, whose speech was broadcast on state television, TASS reported.
The Venezuelan president added that he was hurt for Trump, since Guaido, in his opinion, had betrayed the American leader. "Less than five minutes later, American TV channels announced the victory of (the US Democratic Party candidate) Joe Biden, and Guaido dumped Trump. The rats are fleeing from the sinking ship," Maduro said.
The Venezuelan authorities are expressing their readiness to work on the resumption of direct dialogue with the future American administration, Maduro said. "We will work to re-establish channels of dignified, sincere, direct dialogue between the future United States government and the Venezuelan government that I lead," Maduro said. His speech was broadcast on state television.
The situation in Venezuela has escalated after Guaido, whose appointment as speaker of parliament had previously been annulled by the Supreme Court, declared himself acting president in January 2019.
The United States recognized him as the interim head of state; the countries of the Lima Group (with the exception of Mexico), the Organization of American States and a number of members of the European Union joined them. Maduro called the incident an attempted coup and announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the United States. Russia, Belarus, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Syria and Turkey expressed their support for it.
General elections were held in the United States on November 3. According to forecasts by leading American media, Biden received the 270 electoral votes he needs to defeat Republican Trump in the struggle for the presidency.
Biden has already announced his election victory. Trump did not admit defeat, saying that the vote count cannot be considered complete. He confirmed his intention to go to the courts, since, in his opinion, there were numerous violations committed by the Democrats during the elections.