EU parliament recognises Guaido as Venezuelan interim president

The European Parliament voted on Thursday to recognise Venezuela’s acting president Juan Guaido and urged the European Union and its member states to follow suit.

The vote joins the growing international pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his remaining backers to step aside and allow free elections.

It does not change EU policy, but adds to calls for the EU executive and its member states to join the United States, Canada and Brazil in backing Guaido.

Four major European member states have told Maduro to call those elections by the weekend or they will recognise the opposition-backed parliamentary speaker.

The motion urges Brussels accept Guaido as “legitimate interim president of the country until new free, transparent and credible presidential elections can be called in order to restore democracy.”

The text was proposed jointly by the major political groups in the parliament, and backed by a 439 deputies against 104 “no” votes and 88 abstentions.

EU lawmakers called on all EU governments to follow suit.

“From Europe, we can help change the Venezuelan regime and make it known that tyrants will never enlighten any democratic possibility,” Spanish centre-right EU lawmaker Esteban Gonzalez Pons said in a statement.

The vote also came as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini demanded that Venezuelan authorities loyal to Maduro release detained foreign journalists.

“Our request is for them to be immediately released,” Mogherini told reporters in Bucharest, where EU foreign ministers will discuss the Venezuela crisis.

Five foreign journalists, including two from France and one from Spain, have been held in Venezuela this week, and two more, from Chile, have been deported.

The arrests come with the oil-rich but economically wrecked South American state deep in political turmoil, with the self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido calling on the armed forces to abandon President Nicolas Maduro.

Ahead of the Bucharest meeting, Britain’s foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said he would press his EU colleagues for new sanctions against what he called Venezuelan “kleptocrats” as a way to step up pressure on Maduro.

Speaking on BBC radio, Hunt said a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding in the country, with citizens struggling to find scraps of food.

“Here in Britain and Europe we cannot determine the outcome of what happens in Venezuela. It has to be for the people of Venezuela,” he said. “But what we can do is support the president of the national assembly that wants to uphold the constitution and is saying there need to be elections in four weeks because there is not a legitimate president.”

He added: “We are not considering sanctions against the whole country because there is a humanitarian situation and we wouldn’t want to make the situation even worse. But targeted sanctions against the kleptocrats who have enriched themselves on the back of the rest of the population who are very poor, that is something I think can be effective.”

He said a decision on sanctions is not expected immediately on Thursday.

Guaido himself has called for more EU sanctions targeting the Maduro regime. No quick decision is expected as the legal basis for any sanctions would take some time to prepare.

Mogherini reiterated the EU’s call for new elections in Venezuela. The bloc has warned it will “take further actions” if new elections are not called in the coming days.

Several EU states including Spain, Britain, France and Germany have been more explicit, saying they will recognise Guaido as Venezuela’s leader if new polls are not called by Sunday.