Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó ejected from Colombia


Read Time: 4 minutes

Guaidó lands in Miami after failed bid to attend summit hosted by leftwing president, with return to Venezuela looking unlikely

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondentTue 25 Apr 2023 20.59 BST

Venezuela’s best-known opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has touched down in the United States after being unceremoniously ejected from Colombia while attempting to gatecrash a summit about the political future of his crisis-stricken homeland.

Guaidó shot to fame in early 2019 and for a brief moment looked poised to topple Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, with the support of dozens of foreign governments including the US, UK and Brazil.

But four years later the 39-year-old’s star has waned dramatically as a result of his failure to unseat Hugo Chávez’s political heir. Maduro has crushed street protests and consolidated power. Most of the international community has abandoned Guaidó’s parallel “presidency” and “interim government”.

And key regional powers such as Colombia and Brazil have elected leftist leaders who have revived ties with Maduro’s administration and condemned Guaidó’s attempt to bring it down by using foreign pressure to spark a military uprising.

Workers Day ceremony<br>epa09921647 A handout picture provided by the Palacio Miraflores shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during a ceremony for Workers Day, in Caracas, Venezuela, 01 May 2022. Maduro, approved, on International Labor Day, a 'single bonus' of 10,000 bolivares, about $2,227 dollars at the official exchange rate, for those workers who retired between 01 January 2018 and 01 May 2022. EPA/-- HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Late on Monday, Guaidó announced he had crossed into Colombia on foot to escape Maduro’s “persecution” and attend an international summit which Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, is hosting, in an effort to solve Venezuela’s deeply entrenched political crisis.

However, hours later Guaidó was removed from the South American country by migration officials and boarded a plane to the US, where he landed early on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the persecution of the dictatorship spread to Colombia today,” he said in a video statement filmed inside.

“Guaidó didn’t say it, but everything suggests he will not return to Venezuela,” Luz Mely Reyes, a prominent Venezuelan journalist, tweeted as the politician touched down in Miami.

Christopher Sabatini, a Latin America specialist from Chatham House in London, said Colombia’s decision to send Guaidó packing was a melancholy reflection of how dramatically his political standing had changed since early 2019, when he led huge protests through the streets of Caracas and enjoyed significant global support.

“It’s a sort of sad coda to his so-called presidency,” said Sabatini, who said he suspected Guaidó’s decision to travel to Colombia was a political stunt designed to reassert his waning authority over Venezuela’s opposition.

In fact, Sabatini said he believed Guaidó’s move – which he likened to a botched comeback attempt by the US actor Mickey Rourke – had merely highlighted his weakness. “It’s pure performance. He’s trying to make himself relevant again but it has the opposite effect. It makes him look sad.

“The truth is that most of the governments that are attending [Petro’s conference] – Spain, the UK, Chile and others – no longer recognize [Guaidó’s] government, such as it was, or are now engaging with the Maduro government,” Sabatini added.

“He’s become a little bit of a caricature, to be honest. [He has] no real authority, not much popularity. He is clearly trying to grab headlines and make himself relevant and engaging.” But this week’s drama had merely “reinforced the sense of his irrelevance”.

Guaidó continues to insist his crusade to bring political change to Venezuela is alive.

Before leaving the country, he had planned to take part in October opposition primaries designed to select a candidate to challenge Maduro in a presidential election scheduled for next year. That will be the first such vote since the 2018 election which Maduro won despite leading his country into one of the worst economic collapses outside a war zone in recent history. Much of the international community denounced the 2018 election as an undemocratic sham.

‘Asking an arsonist to put out a fire’: climate offender Maduro makes Cop27 comebackRead more

Guaidó’s party, Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), condemned what it called his “arbitrary expulsion” from Colombia.

However, Petro pushed back, claiming his country would have “gladly” offered Guaidó asylum had he arrived at an official port of entry and presented a passport.

“There is no reason to enter the country illegally,” Colombia’s leftist president tweeted.

“Clearly, a segment of politics wanted to disturb the unhindered progress of the international conference on Venezuela,” Petro added.

At the opening of his one-day conference on Venezuela, Petro said he wanted to see steps to ensure its citizens were free to democratically elect their leaders. But Colombia’s president also called for an end to US sanctions which he blamed for the dire humanitarian crisis that has forced more than seven million Venezuelans to flee abroad over the past eight years.

“We have seen it on our streets​: [Venezuelan] ​p​eople going hungry on the streets of Bogotá and Colombia. People fleeing hunger, fleeing misery​,” Petro told diplomats from countries including the US, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, the UK and Brazil.

“​​The ​America​s​ cannot be a place of sanctions. ​The Americas must be a place of freedoms. ​And the Americas must be a place of democrac​y.”

You’ve read 18 articles in the last year


126 thoughts on “Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó ejected from Colombia

  1. In the grand pattern of things you receive a B+ with regard to hard work. Where you confused everybody was first in your particulars. You know, as the maxim goes, details make or break the argument.. And it couldn’t be much more correct right here. Having said that, let me reveal to you exactly what did give good results. The authoring is definitely rather powerful and that is possibly the reason why I am making an effort to comment. I do not really make it a regular habit of doing that. Next, even though I can see a jumps in reasoning you come up with, I am not really convinced of exactly how you appear to unite your ideas which inturn produce the final result. For the moment I will yield to your position but wish in the foreseeable future you connect your dots better.

  2. Hi! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several weeks of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to stop hackers?

  3. I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was curious what all is required to get set up? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100 certain. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Appreciate it

  4. hello!,I love your writing so much! share we communicate extra about your article on AOL? I require a specialist on this house to resolve my problem. Maybe that’s you! Having a look forward to peer you.

  5. My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was entirely right. This post truly made my day. You can not imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!

  6. I’m not sure why but this site is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.

  7. I just like the valuable info you supply to your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently. I’m reasonably sure I’ll learn plenty of new stuff proper right here! Best of luck for the following!

  8. Hi just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same outcome.

  9. Please let me know if you’re looking for a writer for your blog. You have some really great posts and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please send me an e-mail if interested. Kudos!

  10. This design is steller! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!

  11. Thank you for the good writeup. It if truth be told was a amusement account it. Look complex to more added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we keep in touch?

  12. An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers

  13. Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

  14. I’m really impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one today..

  15. Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. It will always be stimulating to read content from other writers and practice a little something from their store. I’d prefer to use some with the content on my blog whether you don’t mind. Natually I’ll give you a link on your web blog. Thanks for sharing.

  16. I have been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.

  17. The very heart of your writing whilst appearing agreeable at first, did not really work very well with me after some time. Somewhere within the sentences you actually managed to make me a believer but just for a while. I however have a problem with your jumps in logic and you might do nicely to fill in all those gaps. In the event that you can accomplish that, I will definitely be impressed.

  18. Wow, fantastic weblog format! How lengthy have you ever been blogging for? you make running a blog look easy. The whole look of your website is magnificent, let alone the content!

  19. I was more than happy to seek out this web-site.I wished to thanks on your time for this excellent learn!! I definitely having fun with every little little bit of it and I’ve you bookmarked to take a look at new stuff you blog post.

  20. I am usually to running a blog and i actually appreciate your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I’m going to bookmark your website and hold checking for new information.

  21. I have been surfing online more than 3 hours these days, yet I by no means found any fascinating article like yours. It is beautiful value enough for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content material as you probably did, the web shall be much more helpful than ever before. “No one has the right to destroy another person’s belief by demanding empirical evidence.” by Ann Landers.

  22. certainly like your web site however you need to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very troublesome to inform the reality nevertheless I will certainly come back again.

  23. I have recently started a site, the info you provide on this site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work. “The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.” by Edith Sodergran.

  24. Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much approximately this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few to drive the message house a little bit, however other than that, that is excellent blog. An excellent read. I will definitely be back.

  25. Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.

  26. It’s actually a cool and useful piece of information. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.

  27. excellent post, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do not notice this. You must continue your writing. I’m confident, you have a great readers’ base already!

  28. Very interesting points you have noted, regards for posting. “Brass bands are all very well in their place – outdoors and several miles away.” by Sir Thomas Beecham.

  29. I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don’t know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!

  30. What Is Neotonics? Neotonics is a skin and gut supplement made of 500 million units of probiotics and 9 potent natural ingredients to support optimal gut function and provide healthy skin.

  31. When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thank you!

  32. Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Firefox. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Thanks

  33. Simply desire to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your submit is just cool and that i can think you are an expert in this subject. Well with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep up to date with coming near near post. Thank you 1,000,000 and please continue the gratifying work.

  34. Your style is so unique compared to many other people. Thank you for publishing when you have the opportunity,Guess I will just make this bookmarked.2

  35. Excellent post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely helpful information particularly the last part 🙂 I care for such info a lot. I was looking for this particular information for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.

  36. Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your website is very cool. I’m impressed by the details that you¦ve on this web site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found simply the information I already searched everywhere and just could not come across. What an ideal site.

  37. An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!

  38. Its like you learn my mind! You seem to know so much approximately this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I think that you just can do with some percent to power the message house a bit, but other than that, that is fantastic blog. A fantastic read. I will certainly be back.

  39. It’s the best time to make some plans for the long run and it’s time to be happy. I have learn this put up and if I could I wish to suggest you some interesting things or suggestions. Maybe you can write next articles regarding this article. I want to read more things approximately it!

  40. Hello, you used to write magnificent, but the last few posts have been kinda boring… I miss your great writings. Past several posts are just a bit out of track! come on!

  41. Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem with your website in internet explorer, would test this… IE still is the market leader and a huge portion of people will miss your great writing due to this problem.

  42. I have been exploring for a little bit for any high quality articles or weblog posts on this kind of house . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this web site. Studying this info So i am happy to express that I have a very excellent uncanny feeling I discovered just what I needed. I so much undoubtedly will make sure to don¦t disregard this website and give it a look regularly.

  43. Hello there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it is truly informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

  44. I will immediately grasp your rss feed as I can’t in finding your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Please let me know in order that I may subscribe. Thanks.

  45. of course like your web-site however you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very troublesome to tell the reality then again I will surely come back again.

  46. I have been exploring for a little bit for any high-quality articles or blog posts in this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this website. Studying this info So i am satisfied to exhibit that I have an incredibly excellent uncanny feeling I found out exactly what I needed. I most certainly will make certain to do not forget this web site and give it a glance on a relentless basis.

  47. Howdy! I’m at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 3gs! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the excellent work!

  48. Thank you for some other informative site. The place else may I get that type of information written in such an ideal way? I have a venture that I am simply now operating on, and I’ve been on the glance out for such information.

  49. I cling on to listening to the news broadcast lecture about receiving free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the finest site to get one. Could you advise me please, where could i acquire some?

  50. Hi, Neat post. There is a problem with your web site in internet explorer, would check this… IE still is the market leader and a big portion of people will miss your wonderful writing because of this problem.

  51. Good post and right to the point. I am not sure if this is actually the best place to ask but do you people have any ideea where to get some professional writers? Thank you 🙂

  52. Hi, I just hopped over to your web-site through StumbleUpon. Not somthing I might typically browse, but I liked your views none the less. Thanks for making something worthy of reading through.

  53. The post is absolutely fantastic! Lots of great info and inspiration, both of which we all need! Also like to admire the time and effort you put into your website and detailed info you offer! I will bookmark your website!

  54. Aw, this was a very nice post. In idea I wish to put in writing like this moreover taking time and precise effort to make an excellent article! I procrastinate alot and by no means seem to get something done.

  55. I think other web-site proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and fantastic user genial style and design, let alone the content. You are an expert in this topic!

  56. Woah this is just an insane amount of information, must of taken ages to compile so thanx so much for just sharing it with all of us. If your ever in any need of related information, just check out my own site!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *