Juan Guaidó

Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez (born 28 July 1983) is a Venezuelan opposition politician. He belonged to the social-democratic party Popular Will, and was a federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of Vargas. On 23 January 2019, Guaidó and the National Assembly declared that he was acting president of Venezuela (Spanish: Presidente encargado de Venezuela), starting the Venezuelan presidential crisis by challenging Nicolás Maduro's presidency. In December 2022, opposition parties voted to dismiss Guaidó as interim president, choosing Dinorah Figuera as a successor on 5 January 2023 and ending Guaidó's presidential claim.

Guaidó's political career began when he emerged as a student leader in the 2007 Venezuelan protests. He then helped found the Popular Will party with Leopoldo López in 2009, and was elected to be an alternate deputy in the National Assembly one year later in 2010. In 2015, Guaidó was elected as a full-seat deputy. Following a protocol to annually rotate the position of President of the National Assembly among political parties, Popular Will nominated Guaidó for the position in 2019.

Guaidó was a key figure in the Venezuelan presidential crisis, which began when the National Assembly, considering the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election illegitimate, refused to recognize the inauguration of Maduro to a second presidential term on 10 January 2019. Guaidó announced, on 23 January 2019, that he was formally assuming the role of interim president under Article 233 of the Constitution of Venezuela, with the backing of the National Assembly, until free elections could be held. At one point Guaidó received formal recognition of legitimacy from almost 60 governments worldwide, including the United States, Canada and various Latin American and European countries, although the European Union stopped recognizing his presidency on 6 January 2021. Following the 5 January dissolution of Guaidó's interim government, the United States confirmed that it stopped its recognition. Other nations, including Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Cuba and Turkey consistently rejected his claim to the presidency and continued to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president without interruption. Guaidó failed to remove Maduro from power. The Maduro administration has frozen Guaidó's Venezuelan assets, has launched a probe accusing Guaidó of foreign interference, and has threatened violence against him.

In April 2019, Guaidó called for an uprising against Maduro as part of "Operation Freedom", which ultimately failed. Following the failed uprising, representatives of Guaidó and Maduro began mediation, with the assistance of the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution. In January 2020, security forces prevented Guaidó and other congress members from entering the legislative palace during an internal election to choose the board of directors. A majority of lawmakers held an "emergency meeting" and voted to re-elect Guaidó as their leader, while the remaining lawmakers at the legislative palace elected Luis Parra. Security forces denied Guaidó and opposition lawmakers access to parliament many times since. After the announcement of regional elections in 2021, Guaidó announced a "national salvation agreement" and proposed negotiation with Maduro with a schedule for free and fair elections, with international support and observers, in exchange for lifting international sanctions.

Domestically, Guaidó's actions included a proposed Plan País (Country Plan), an amnesty law for military personnel and authorities who turn against the Maduro government, attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to the country, and social bonuses for health workers during COVID-19 pandemic. Internationally, Guaidó gained control of some Venezuelan assets and property in the United States, had success in a legal battle for control of £1.3 billion of Venezuelan gold reserves in the United Kingdom, and appointed diplomats which had been recognized by supportive governments.

In December 2022, three of the four main opposition political parties (Justice First, Democratic Action, and A New Era) backed and approved a reform to dissolve the interim government and create a commission of five members to manage foreign assets, as deputies sought a united strategy ahead of the next Venezuelan presidential election scheduled for 2024, stating that the interim government had failed to achieve the goals it had set. The New York Times reported that the actions from the opposition to remove Guaidó as their leader signified that it has lost faith in "Guaidó's ability to oust President Nicolás Maduro". In April 2023 he fled to the United States citing fears of his arrest, living in exile in Miami, Florida. On 6 October 2023, the Maduro administration charged Guaidó with money laundering, treason, and usurping public functions, issued an arrest warrant and asked the international community to cooperate with an arrest of Guaidó, requesting a red notice be issued by Interpol. Guaidó has denied the charges made against him in the arrest warrant.