Disabled by the controller | Guaidó will not be able to …

Venezuelan parliament speaker and self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaidó, has been barred from holding public office for 15 years for alleged corruption. The Office of the Comptroller has accused him of having hidden or falsified data from his sworn account and of having received money from national and international authorities without justification. The Leader of the Opposition ignored the sanction.

"The Comptroller's Office has decided to disqualify Juan Guaidó from the public service for the maximum period set by law," controller Elvis Amoroso told VTV. Venezuelan law provides for a maximum penalty of 15 years, recalled the official, although it did not specify from which date the lapse would begin to run. "He made more than 91 trips out of the territory with a cost exceeding 310 million bolivars (about 94,000 dollars), without justifying the source of income," said Amoroso, noting that many of these trips had been made with private planes. The Venezuelan controller also estimated that Guaidó spent 200 million bolivars (60,000 dollars) on his stay in luxury hotels outside the country. The official said that these expenses did not correspond to what a Venezuelan deputy can afford. Therefore, the controller considered that Guaidó had concealed or falsified data contained in his sworn check. The government body had already announced on 11 February the opening of an investigation against parliament for receiving international funding. In addition, according to Mr Amoroso, since taking office Guaidó as a deputy, in 2016, he remained 248 days abroad.

The Office of the Comptroller – who monitors the behavior of state agents and is empowered to punish them with a fine or disqualify them – has asked the prosecutor to exercise the corresponding actions and to the tax authorities of the State. inspect hotels where the opponent has stayed in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan prosecutor's office has already opened two investigations against Guaidó. One of them is related to his proclamation as president in office and the other to his alleged involvement in the first mbadive blackout suffered by Venezuela three weeks ago.

The leader of the opposition was quick to ignore the penalty. Guaidó alleged that Amoroso had been appointed by the ruling Constituent Assembly, which he considers illegitimate. "There is no controller, there is no disqualification, the Venezuelan Parliament is the only one to appoint a controller," he said at the end of 39, a political rally. The Speaker of Parliament further stated that they had pushed Amoroso to scare the hotels where he was staying when he was traveling in the country. "We are continuing our nationwide tour to implement Operation Freedom," he said about the proposed program for the end of the current government and a transition plan leading to elections. Guaidó's strategy to legitimize himself as interim president and to promote the fall of President Nicolás Maduro also rests on an international arm carried by both so-called "ambbadadors" and his own wife. Fabiana Rosales, on tour in different countries, yesterday met with US First Lady Melania Trump and met with President Donald Trump and his deputy Mike Pence the day before yesterday.

Due to repeated power cuts that hit the country since March 7 and the opposition blames the government, the head of parliament called on his supporters to demonstrate tomorrow and Saturday, April 6. Guaidó announced the completion of a simulation of Operation Liberty, a mbadive march that he hopes will lead to the doors of the Miraflores Presidential Palace to claim a post. Faced with these new mobilizations, the Caribbean country's information minister, Jorge Rodríguez, badured that the demonstration would be a mock coup d'etat against Maduro.

For this first Saturday of April, Guaidó explained on Wednesday, citizens should be organized into relief committees and on the freedom of civilians, military and public service employees, he said. Maduro dived in Venezuela. For this demonstration to be a success, he added, it will be necessary for the armed forces and law and order agencies to turn their backs on Maduro and also act against the bodies of armed civilians loyal to Chavez. In response, Maduro called for a big mobilization throughout the country.