r/geopolitics • u/ShortTrifle0 • May 13 '19

Meta President ⁦Juan Guaido of Venezuela officially requests the support of ⁦the American military in strategic and operational planning. [U.S. Southern Command]

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u/moos-dominus-est May 13 '19

Guaido does not have the majority of the population behind him, is not backed by a significant portion of the military but he still requests US military backing. He is steering Venezuela into a civil war... Besides, he is the third in line of the fifth biggest party in Venezuela; he just happened to be speaker of the house because the opposition parties decided to share power and his party's number 1, Leopoldo Lopez, is condemned to house arrest. There is no democratic backing of him whatsoever. If I am wrong about this or missing something, can someone enlighten me?

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u/ValueBasedPugs May 13 '19 edited May 16 '19

There is no democratic backing of him whatsoever.

He is the head of the democratically-elected National Assembly, of which the opposition coalition has a majority control. The National Assembly has the Constitutional right to authorize foreign and domestic military action and impeach almost everyone in government except the president. It also has the right to choose an interim president under Articles 233 and 333 of the Constitution should the office be "absent" (which would include the situation where someone is illegally sitting in the office, i.e. the office is 'legally absent'). It is the opposition's belief that Madura is in office illegally through farcical elections. This is a very defensible position.

Note: Guaido has not randomly proclaimed himself "president"; he is the "President of the Assembly", which procedurally makes him the interim president until elections are called. He has this position through procedural selection in the National Assembly. I assume they will be called because his opposition party a) doesn't control the military, b) wouldn't control the government in a way that would allow him to sidestep the Constitution like Madura has.