President Trump’s diplomatic campaign against Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro on Monday won the support of some European countries that decided to recognize lawmaker Juan Guaido as interim president.
Sixteen European nations – including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – lent their support to Guaido, after a diplomatic deadline for Maduro to call elections passed without any concession from the regime. The announcement raises the possibility that Europe’s largest economies will join the U.S. effort to deprive Maduro of government resources and support Guaido instead.
“We encourage all countries, including other EU member states, to support the Venezuelan people by recognizing Interim President Guaido and supporting the National Assembly’s efforts to return constitutional democracy to Venezuela,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday afternoon.
Spain is one of the most notable of the countries to recognize Guaido — a list that also includes Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden. The Spanish government has been selling military vehicles to Maduro as recently as 2018, in addition to approving a deal valued at nearly $23 million to modernize combat tanks.
“This figure is nearly 10 times greater than all Spanish arms sales to Venezuela in the year 2017,” El Pais noted in December.
Maduro isn’t friendless among U.S. allies. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads a crucial NATO member-state, has denounced the effort to support Guaido. And Italy, a member of the G-7 bloc of the largest industrial democracies, likewise has rebuked the U.S. and other Guaido supporters.
“We absolutely oppose the fact that a country or a group of third countries can determine the internal policies of another country,” Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Manlio Di Stefano said Friday.
