CARACAS, Feb 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Venezuela’s government on Sunday blocked
five European lawmakers from entering the country, triggering an angry
response by opposition leader Juan Guaido who had invited the delegation.
“We are being expelled from Venezuela, our passports have been seized,
they have not informed us of the reason for the expulsion,” said Spanish
Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Esteban Gonzalez Pons, who led the
group.
The other lawmakers were his compatriots Jose Ignacio Salafranca and
Gabriel Mato Adrover, as well as Esther de Lange of the Netherlands and Paulo
Rangel of Portugal.
All are members of the conservative European People’s Party (PPE).
Writing on Twitter, Guaido slammed the decision and said the group was
“deported by an isolated and increasingly irrational regime.”
“The usurper is the one who is increasing the price of what is already a
fact: the transition,” he added, referring to embattled President Nicolas
Maduro.
Guaido is seeking to enlist a million volunteers within a week to confront
a government blockade that has kept tons of humanitarian aid, most of it from
the United States, from flowing into the country.
He has given February 23 — one month to the day after he proclaimed
himself acting president — as the date for a showdown over the aid with the
government of Maduro.
An imploding economy has driven an estimated 2.3 Venezuelans to migrate,
while those who remain have been punished by hyperinflation that has put
scarce food and medicine out of reach for many.
Maduro, who denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis, dismisses the
opposition moves as a “political show” and a cover for a US invasion.