Juan Guaidó failing upwards

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About 2.5 years ago Juan Guaidó was about to assume the presidency of Venezuela, despite never even running for the office.
However, Guaido missed his moment, because, well, he's a fraud and a crook.

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(Reuters) - Venezuela’s state prosecutor’s office said on Friday it would open an investigation into Juan Guaido after the interior minister presented photos on state television showing the opposition leader in the company of two suspected members of a Colombian drug-trafficking group.

And this wasn't his only scandal of that year.

(Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido’s faltering efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro are facing a new challenge in the form of an influence-peddling scandal that has left disillusioned Venezuelans wondering if Guaido’s moment has passed.

By March of 2020, the United States was proposing a transitional government that would exclude both Maduro and Guaidó from the presidency. So you would think that his window of opportunity had closed more than a year ago, right? The EU stopped recognizing Guaido as president nearly a year ago. According to polls in Venezuela from early 2020, only 3.0% recognized Guaidó as president, while 88.3% of respondents believed that Guaidó was incapable of governing Venezuela.
His pathetic coup attempt in May 2020, didn't help his cause. Even his own political party in Venezuela wants to ditch him.

“There is an attempt to continue extending the Guaido government, but that does not help the Venezuelan people, and I’m not going to support it,” said Henrique Capriles, a former presidential candidate from the Justice First party whose support for Guaido, which was key in 2019, has cooled as the interim government has stumbled recently...
The dissent stems from the Guaido government’s failure to oust President Nicolas Maduro and discrepancies over handling of assets abroad, the people said.

Most importantly, Guaidó stopped being an elected member of Parliament in January 2021. He doesn't hold ANY office now. So why are we still talking about him?

There's two reasons why Guaidó is still relevant. 1) Because Washington still backs him, and it has no Plan B, and 2) those "assets abroad" and their "handling".
Did I mention that Guaidó is a fraud and a crook?

Opposition politician Juan Guaido would have stolen US$40 million of Venezuela's foreign assets that were aimed at humanitarian aid, according to a report published by The Washington Post.
The U.S.-backed opposition needed money to implement its plan to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro's government from abroad.

According to The Washington Post, Miami-based Venezuelan businessmen Jorge Reyes and Pedro Antar offered a plan to get that money by seeking Venezuelan assets in Latin America.

The assets included companies' shares, cars, houses, and other properties owned by the Oil Company of Venezuela (PDVSA).
The U.S.-based outlet had access to reports on contracts signed by the Guaido's delegates during the process of identifying and recovering the assets.

"Troconis signed with a South Florida law firm to recover a U.K.-based account that contained nearly US$1.7 billion owned by Venezuela's Food Ministry," the Washington Post revealed.

Another contract disclosed that Guaido condoned half of the US$269 million debt that Paraguay agrees to owe PDVSA. Although both agreements were made under Guaido's consent, he denies any involvement in this scandal.

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As you can see, these are extremely large amounts of money.
However, Guaido is about to gain control (aka steal) of the largest chunk of wealth yet.

The UK Supreme Court has prevented Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from accessing $1.95bn (£1.4bn) of gold stored in the Bank of England (BoE).
Mr Maduro says the cash will be used to fight Covid-19 in the country.

The Supreme Court overturned a prior Court of Appeal ruling, meaning only opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who the UK considers as the legitimate leader, can decide what happens to the gold.

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@gjohnsit
how much of Central and South America remains aligned with the US. No reason, much less a good reason, for any country anywhere to recognize a man like Guido as president. He has no in-country support base; far less support than an ordinary, successful military coup leader.

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@Marie
I know for a fact that Bolivia has restored relations with the real government of Venezuela.
The color for Honduras, Peru and Chile might be about to change as well, considering the recent elections.
As for Colombia and Brazil, let's see what happens next year.

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Cassiodorus's picture

continues to disintegrate. In the US, the champion nation-state of Juan Guaidó, Democrats have Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg, all of whom have offices but all of whom are deeply unpopular and none of whom have any real political capital outside of the donor class. The Republicans have made themselves unelectable. It's a nice time for a new political party, if the nice liberals with big egos actually care.

I have a friend who is deathly afraid that Donald Trump will win the Presidency in 2024. I'm expecting Donald Trump to be diagnosed with congestive heart failure by the time 2024 rolls around.

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"To watch the leader of the most powerful nation on earth endorse and finance a genocide prompts not a passing kind of disgust or anger, but a severance." -- Omar el Akkad

No surprise that Boris Johnson would become unpopular

(Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party has taken a six point lead over Boris Johnson's Conservatives in a new poll showing the impact of alleged lockdown parties at the prime minister's residence and tougher COVID measures.

Johnson faces charges of hypocrisy after he tightened restrictions in England days after a leaked video showed his staff laughing about a Downing Street party last year during a 2020 Christmas COVID-19 lockdown...
The poll of 1,178 people carried out on Wednesday and Thursday put Labour on 40% of the vote, up 1 percentage point, and Johnson's Conservatives down 2 to 34%

The SNP is poised to gain control of Scotland again

The SNP remain the most popular party in Scotland by far with 47% of support, while Labour are in second with 22% and the Tories are in third with 13%.
...An attempt to protect a Tory MP who broke lobbying rules saw North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson step down and the LibDems overturned a massive Tory majority in the recent by-election for the area which has had a Conservative MP since 1830.

The problem is much like Biden winning the presidency, if Labour wins the next election there is very little payoff for the Left.

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lotlizard's picture

Their leader Annalena Baerbock is now head of the foreign ministry, but foreign policy won’t deviate in any way from the Angela Merkel-led government’s, it being the case that Washington, Brussels, Tel Aviv, and even Riyadh have more say and sway over German foreign policy than anything any mere national electorate might want.

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Shahryar's picture

One of the more bizarre things I've ever seen was Pelosi's performance during a Trump State of the Union address. She seemed to be in a mini coma, not reacting to anything Trump said. All she did was turn pages with her head down.

Then Trump got to the part where he introduced Guaido, who was up in the bleachers, and suddenly Pelosi jumped up and began clapping wildly. After which she returned to her zombie state.

It was funny in a funny way. And I mean humorous in an odd way.

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