Associated Press: Guido secretly visited three countries to coordinate the coup in Venezuela
A secret visit for the Venezuelan opposition speaker House of Representatives Juan Guido to Washington and other loyal neighboring countries has been hidden in the run-up to his inauguration.
“Venezuela’s House of Representatives opposition leader Juan Guido, in December, traveled secretly to the United States and neighboring countries to coordinate his strategy against the president’s government”, the US Associated Press agency said Saturday.
According to what the Associated Press exposed, Guido went to coordinate his move with the United State and Latin American neighboring countries, against the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
“Guido’s supporters hid this information until the last moment of his plans and his secret tour of the moderate opposition”, the Associated Press added in its report.
In mid-December, Guido traveled secretly to Washington, Colombia and Brazil to inform officials there of plans by the Venezuelan opposition to launch mass protests in conjunction with the performance of President Nicolas Maduro, sworn in on January 10, a Guido assistant, Antonio Ledesma, said.
The Associated Press quoted an unnamed diplomat from a Latin American country in the Lima group as confirming that Guido had personally confirmed in the Colombian capital Bogotá that he would announce himself as president on January 23, asserting that at the same time, a number of moderate factions in the Venezuelan opposition have been informed of this plan, as some moderate opposition leaders want slower steps and fear that a sharp move by Guido will lead to another failure of the opposition.
The unnamed opposition spokesman, told Reuters that Guido left Venezuela via an unregulated part of the border with Colombia, where border guards are sometimes prevented from leaving opposition members.
“The use of encrypted messages has become used to preserve the secrecy of the plans drawn up or received by the anti-government movement in Venezuela”, the opposition representative said.
“Intermediaries were used to communicate with Leopoldo Lopez, who is Guido’s political advisor and a leader of the Venezuelan opposition”, said an unnamed US official.
On Wednesday, January 23, Guaido declared himself as the interim president of the country.
The United States announced a few minutes later to recognize him as president of Venezuela.
The legitimate president, Nicolas Maduro, said that “opposition leader Juan Guido, who declared himself president, is unconstitutional president, “and announced that the United States had tried to carry out a coup in the country.
He told his supporters outside the presidential palace in Caracas that he gave US diplomats 72 hours to leave the country.
