Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido was to arrive in Brazil on Wednesday ni...
BRASILIA/GENEVA - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido was to arrive in Brazil on Wednesday night to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as part of a tour of several nations to drum up international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step down.
The congress chief has organized nationwide protests over the past month while the United States has imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela’s key oil industry and government officials. Yet Maduro retains control of state institutions, leaving the two sides locked in a stalemate. Yet Brazil, whose northern state of Roraima depends on Venezuela for electrical power, this week played down the possibility of military intervention.
Maduro denies there is a crisis in the country despite overseeing a hyperinflationary meltdown that has seen sharp increases in malnutrition and the spread of preventable disease, as well as an exodus of 3.4 million Venezuelans since 2015. In the latest sign of Maduro’s desperation to raise hard currency amid tightening sanctions, at least 8 tons of gold were removed from the Venezuelan central bank’s vaults last week, an opposition legislator and three government sources told Reuters. [nL5N20M7JX]