RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó appeared this Monday, July 11, at the door of his home, shortly after his wife, Fabiana Rosales, denounced that officers of the elite police force (FAES) were at his residence to arrest him.
“The intimidation has never stopped us,” Guaidó told journalists who were at the door of his home, where a small group of supporters also gathered to protest the possible arrest.
The opponent, who indicated that he was not arrested thanks to the presence of neighbors and the press, explained that the police officers who tried to apprehend him did not have any identification. Hence, he qualified the attempted arrest as a “kidnapping”.
“They entered our residence without any order, without any identification, pointing long weapons, they set off an explosive inside the basement of our building”, he assured while also denouncing that his driver was beaten out of the vehicle and “tied up”.
“I don’t know where he is at the moment, I am looking for information”, added the opposition leader, who blamed the government of Nicolás Maduro for what happened.
Likewise, he denounced that he does not know where former opposition deputy Freddy Guevera, detained minutes before police officers showed up at his residence, is being held.
“Who is harassing and kidnapped Freddy Guevara? Who chased to the basement and who set off an explosive in the basement of our homes?” he asked.
Guaidó also took the opportunity to disassociate himself from the allegations by the Maduro government of being linked to the armed groups installed in the Caracas neighborhood Cota 905 and reiterated that these gangs are financed by the “dictatorship”.
Furthermore, he asked the Government if, with this arrest attempt, they are “sabotaging” the negotiation process he is promoting.
“Are they afraid of achieving a national salvation agreement? It is the dictatorship that is afraid of it in any case. We stand firm in our convictions and in what we are looking for,” he indicated.
He reiterated that the agreement is to save Venezuela, and if “they think that by intimidating if they think that by generating some harassment they are going to stop us, we are not going to do it.”
Finally, Guaidó called on the international community to support “the Venezuelan, Cuban and the Nicaraguan struggle”.