Wednesday night — following the release of a U.N. report that accuses Venezuela's authoritarian socialist regime of crimes against humanity — opposition leader Juan Guaidó had a message for Venezuela's military.
He implored the armed forces to heed the international community's message that they can no longer “prop up an international criminal” — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
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The U.S. and nearly 60 other countries recognize Guaidó, not Maduro, as Venezuela’s legitimate president. The U.N. report puts new pressure on Maduro, who has resisted U.S, and international efforts, including sharp economic sanctions, to dislodge him from power.
It accuses him — more directly than ever — of ordering political arrests, torture and killings over the past six years.
It adds to charges the U.N. laid out last year when it accused Maduro’s security forces of more than 5,000 killings, mostly of anti-regime activists.
Guaidó urged Venezuela’s military to “not be manipulated by a brutal and savage dictatorship.”
The Maduro regime accuses the U.N. of being manipulated by the U.S.
