'Return to democracy': US Secretary of State holds dialogue with Venezuela's Guaido

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaidó on Tuesday, spokesperson Ned Price said in a US State Department release. In the telephonic conversation, US Secretary Blinken stressed the importance of a “return to democracy” in Venezuela through free and fair elections. In the first-ever dialogue with the Venezuelan interim president under the Biden administration, Blinken stressed that the United States was making efforts to work with "like-minded allies" including the European Union, Lima Group, Organization of American States, and International Contact Group. He added that it was important for the US to increase multilateral pressure and press for a peaceful, democratic transition in countries that are an ally and a partner. 

“Secretary Blinken and Interim President Guaidó discussed the urgent humanitarian needs in Venezuela that have forced nearly 5.5 million Venezuelans to flee Venezuela,” the US State Department informed. It emphasized that Blinken also applauded Venezuela’s efforts, saying that the US will be partisan in trying to find solutions to ease their suffering.

Moreover, Blinken appreciated Venezuela’s commitment to continued US support. Blinken and Guaidó’s talks come in the backdrop of appeals by the Venezuelan president Maduro, who had urged his parliament to “take initiatives towards a new beginning” with Washington when Joe Biden assumed the office of the presidency. “We must tell the United States: We want to improve our relations, to make it one of respect, of mutual acknowledgment, a relationship with a future,” Maduro had said in a state televised address. 

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President Nicolas Maduro widely 'criticized' 

US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, meanwhile, has often widely criticized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, internationally, as being fraudulent. He called the Venezuelan elections, wherein President Maduro championed a sweeping victory after a party alliance, “a sham”. Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela and allied parties have often been under the radar for being undemocratic and the US government has officially recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president. Biden’s secretary of state Blinken had called Maduro a “brutal dictator” during a Senate confirmation hearing.

The Trump administration, additionally, had slapped an oil embargo on Venezuela to escalate the campaign to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office and “restore democracy”.  According to US executive orders against Venezuela, President Maduro was accused of “human rights abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful arrest and detention of Venezuelan citizens, interference with freedom of expression, including for members of the media, and ongoing attempts to undermine Interim President Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan National Assembly’s exercise of legitimate authority in Venezuela.”

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