Return to Maduro: a court ruled that only Juan Guaidó could legally represent Venezuela in the United States.

The Court of Appeal of the District of Columbia decided this Wednesday that only the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, can exercise the legal representation of the State of Venezuela in US territory, which is a setback for the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

In a court order, to which Efe agreed, The court of appeal explained that Guaidó is recognized at the judicial level in the United States. as acting president of Venezuela because the US executive made the "political" decision to grant him this condition on January 23.

"Which government should be considered here as a representative of a foreign state is a political rather than a judicial matter, and should be determined by (…) the governors", said the court of appeal, citing previous decisions establishing the case law of this case.

According to the court order, the decision of the US executive "recognize a foreign government" is "Definitive in all national jurisdictions, which are bound to respect this determination."

L & # 39; lawyer José Ignacio Hernández, appointed by Guaidó as "special advocate", celebrated the decision on Twitter.

"The Columbia District Circuit Court has just decided that only the president in charge, Juan Guaidó, can represent Venezuela in the United States. Special will continue to defend the interests of the Venezuelan State in court ", he affirmed.

The court made this decision in response to the motion filed by another case by Maduro's legal representatives, an application that was rejected Wednesday.

In particular, the case concerned Rusoro Mining, a Vancouver-based, Russian-owned company that operated two mines in the city of The callao, in southeastern Venezuela, nationalized in 2011 by the then president Hugo Chávez, who died today.

The court order does not give details of the status of this case and cites only the name Rusoro Mining and from another company, Goldfields, which operated one of the mines in Venezuela that Rusoro Mining subsequently acquired.

EThe United States was the first country in the world to recognize Mr. Guaidó as presidentwho, on January 23, invoked articles of the Constitution to pretend that as president of the National Assembly he could declare himself head of state in what he regarded as a "usurpation" of Maduro.

Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, won the May 2018 elections, was questioned by the international community and returned to office on 10 January.

(With information from EFE)