Maduro drops demand ‘US diplomats leave Venezuela’

Bloomberg

Venezuela abandoned its decision to sever diplomatic ties with the US, stating that each country agreed to keep a so-called interest section open in their respective capitals.
The announcement that the missions would remain open was a retreat after days of bellicose rhetoric prompted by the US decision to recognize National Assembly leader Juan Guaido as the nation’s rightful head of state. President Nicolas Maduro’s election to a six-year term last year has been widely criticized as a fraud designed to keep him and his military allies in power despite the country’s years-long spiral into misery and hunger.
This weekend, Guaido’s supporters maintained a united front from New York and Brussels to the streets of Caracas, and the country’s military attache in Washington declared allegiance to the newcomer. The European Union demanded speedy elections and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told the UN that the socialist Maduro must go.
“It is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem,” Pompeo told the UN Security Council on Saturday during an emergency session called by the US.
Maduro called Pompeo “a warlord” who speaks with “a lot of despair and hate” in a preview of an interview with CNN-Turk channel due to air Sunday.
Pompeo and President Donald Trump have been intransigent in the face of Maduro’s fury.
Despite the regime’s threats to throw out diplomats and cut off electricity, the US ad refused to close its embassy. However, nonessential staff were leaving the country, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in a statement, calling it “an effective retreat.” Venezuelan diplomats in Washington were already returning to Caracas on Saturday, he said. Now, the governments have 30 days to reach an agreement that will establish interest sections, which permit basic consular functions, but are the lowest level of diplomatic exchange. Remaining personnel will stay in their respective embassies, protected by “diplomatic prerogatives” during that time, according to Arreaza’s statement. There was no immediate response from the US.
Venezuela’s competing leaders —Guaido is a 35-year-old engineer-turned-lawmaker while Maduro succeeded the late President Hugo Chavez in 2013 —are vying for support in the streets, the military and the mainstay oil industry.
The nation’s diplomatic outposts are more leverage Guaido would like to seize. At a Saturday morning rally in Caracas, he said that many diplomats were heeding his calls to stay in place in defiance of Maduro. “Remember all those consulates that were going to close?” Guaido asked the crowd. “I’ve got good news for you: They’re going to stay open for a long while!”
Colonel Jose Luis Silva Silva, Venezuela’s top military diplomat in the US, said in a video widely circulated on social media that he supports Guaido. “The armed forces have a key role in restoring democracy in the country,” Silva said, calling on the government to “stop the usurpation of executive power.” Carlos Luna, a professor of international relations at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, said Maduro’s decision to allow interest sections represents a “loss in power.”
“He made a threat and didn’t complete it,” Luna said. “He’s doing this to ease tensions with the US. When he made the decision to break relations he did so because he felt obligated, but forcing diplomats out by force carries consequences, especially if you’re staring down the world’s greatest military power.”