A key figure in the US-backed opposition to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has quit one month before opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s fragile claim to an interim presidency lapses.
By Argus Media – Patricia Garip
Dec 6, 2021
Julio Borges, who served from exile in Colombia as foreign envoy for Guaidó’s shadow administration, said the interim administration had lost its way and become a corrupt bureaucracy. “The Interim Government is no longer a means to liberate us and has become an end in itself that looks to stay on indefinitely,” Borges said, adding that the focus on administering Venezuela’s overseas assets had distracted from the goal of restoring democracy.
Guaido’s interim administration said today that two of Borges’ deputies, Isadora Zubillaga and Antonio Ecarri, would temporarily carry out his functions.
Borges’ exit came as little surprise. But it adds to growing perception of dysfunction in the opposition leadership.
The opposition coalition backed by Washington since early 2019 has been an uneasy mix of four competing political parties, including Borges’ Primero Justicia (PJ) which has now broken ranks. But it is Voluntad Popular (VP), the hardline party of Guaido and his exiled political mentor Leopoldo López, that is drawing growing internal resentment for its failure to topple Maduro and alleged mismanagement of Venezuela’s state-owned assets abroad. VP is the chief advocate of continuing US sanctions on Venezuela.
Citgo-ing
Borges had been criticizing Guaido’s administration for months, particularly regarding the management and legal defense of Venezuela’s assets.
The main asset, Venezuela’s state-owned PdV’s US refining arm Citgo, is moving closer to a foreclosure by PdV 2020 bondholders and one or two arbitration claimants next year, if the US drops its executive branch protection. Borges has said Citgo should be placed into a form of international trust.
In Colombia, Venezuelan state-owned fertilizer company Monomeros Colombo-Venezolanos is mired in accusations of financial irregularities and chronyism tied to the opposition parties.
Maduro says Guaidó and his associates stole the assets and squandered them. In the UK, a court battle for control of Venezuelan central bank gold reserves is still pending.
Guaido’s constitutional claim to an interim presidency expires on 5 January. The US government has signaled that it will mantain recognition of his leadership of a “unitary platform” of traditional opposition parties, while pressing them to mend fences in anticipation of a restart of political negotiations with the Maduro government in 2022. The México-based talks collapsed in October.
Borges says he will present a package of recommendations to the opposition tomorrow. His resignation follows Venezuela’s 21 November local and regional elections that EU and US observer teams determined to be flawed. Maduro’s socialist party swept most of the seats.
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