Sant bursts MEPs’ bubble: No power to recognise Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to take power

Maltese MEP Alfred Sant can see a contradictory, political game when it happens.

As a host of EU states rushed to recognise a right-wing Opposition leader who has appointed himself ‘interim president’ of Venezuela, run by the democratically-elected Nicolás Madura, the former Malta prime minister told MEPs they have no legal status to recognise or not any government’s sovereign status.

Venezuela is a country in chaos right now, but even the EU could not get its own message on foreign policy right: while France, Germany and the U.K. have officially recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president after Maduro ignored a demand to call new elections, other EU countries – including Belgium, Finland and Sweden – stopped short of recognizing Guaidó, the National Assembly president, just issuing messages of support.

Italy blocked a joint statement by the EU – leaving the high representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, an Italian, forced to issue a complex statement. “We did not participate, none of us, at the inauguration of Maduro on the 10th of January and we recognize as the legitimate institution of the country, the National Assembly, and recognize the role of its president. This is clear. This is a common position.”

Sant has now abstained on a European Parliament resolution calling for the recognition of the Opposition in Venezuela as the rightful government, which passed with 439 votes in favour, 104 against and 88 abstentions.

Alfred Sant

“I cannot endorse such an administration. Neither though, can I bless an Opposition that has been ready to sabotage the actions of a legitimate government, and now openly trades with President Trump for his help to take over the state.”

“The European Parliament has no legal standing to recognize or not the sovereign and diplomatic status of governments... Nor should it seek to achieve such a standing, despite the empty and absurd claim that it will have been the first EU institution to take a definitive stand on Venezuela. It is meaningless for this Parliament to express definitive judgements on a situation as complex as in that country,” Sant said.

The current Venezuelan regime descends from the first democratic government of Hugo Chavez that introduced social and economic reforms against a no-holds-barred opposition from right-wing forces, which have historically been out to defend their vested interests.

“During the resulting struggle, the Chavez and then Maduro governments committed huge mistakes, became unacceptably authoritarian, delivered for a while on their social promises, but ran the market-based economy into the ground. Allegations of corruption abound,” Sant said, qualifying his statement.

“I cannot endorse such an administration. Neither though, can I bless an Opposition that has been over the years, thoroughly intransigent, ready to sabotage the actions of a legitimate government, and now openly trades with President Trump for his help to take over the state.”

On January 23, Juan Guaidó, who recently was installed as president of the country’s opposition-led National Assembly, declared himself interim president of Venezuela, in an attempt to oust the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro.

On Twitter, Donald Trump announced that his administration would officially recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s president, and was soon followed by Canada.

In recent days the leading states of the European Union released a common statement announcing that they too would recognize Guaidó if elections were not declared within eight days. The Bank of England has refused to allow the withdrawal of $1.2 billion worth of gold the Bolivarian Republic had stored in its vaults.

Guaidó’s move was condemned by the international left as an attempted coup, with members of parliament from the Labour left condemning the move as an attempt at “regime change” in a letter to the Guardian.

There is extreme polarization inside Venezuela with substantial parts of the population backing either side. A sizable anti-Maduro camp is no longer limited to the country’s elite, having spread to other popular sectors of society. But there is also a strong Chavista camp, some of which is very loyal to Maduro, and in others more critical of Maduro, but still hostile to Guaidó and the Venezuelan opposition.