When [Juan] Guaidó declared himself Venezuela’s rightful interim leader on 23 January – and was recognised by dozens of foreign governments, including Britain and the US – the young opposition leader and his backers believed [Venezuelann president Nocolás] Maduro would fall within days.
Guardian
Funny. We don't talk about that any more.
But half a year later, a massive show of domestic dissent and international pressure has failed to dislodge Hugo Chávez’s unpopular successor.
Unpopular with some. Highly popular with more, despite his shortcomings.
“This was a very high stakes gamble … and it hasn’t really paid off,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based expert for Crisis Group and author of a report on possible solutions to Venezuela’s crisis. “Plan A has certainly not worked.”
That reality has forced Venezuela’s opposition to begin exploring alternatives, particularly after a botched bid to spark a military uprising on 30 April.
With an implied or promised backing from the US not materializing.
Guaidó, meanwhile, has busied himself touring his crisis-stricken country – he has visited 13 of Venezuela’s 23 states since January – in an effort to keep his campaign alive.
[...]
Some have already given up on the 35-year-old politician, amid reports that even Donald Trump – Guaidó’s key backer – is losing interest in his crusade.
Let me correct that: has lost interest.
The commitment of another crucial regional supporter, Jair Bolsonaro, is also in doubt, after Brazil’s far-right president recently dropped a mention of Guaidó from a speech for fear of upsetting Russia’s Vladimir Putin who, along with China’s Xi Jinping, continues to support Maduro.
[...]
“Guaidó is just like the rest of them [in the opposition], he has no plan,” complained Frank Rengifo, a 31-year-old army sergeant who fled over the border into Colombia in mid-March hoping for a US-backed military invasion that never came.
Rengifo – who lives in a hotel near the border town of Cúcuta with hundreds of other stranded defectors – said it was time to up the ante. He hoped a more radical leader, María Corina Machado, could take the lead in toppling Maduro.
They'll have to do it without us. We're on to Iran.
“Guaidó can keep calling protests but people have stopped caring,” he said.
Beto O'Rourke knows how he feels.
Of Guaidó’s doubters, Castro complained: “We love heroes. But once they are defeated, or perceived as defeated, we throw them in the trash. It happened to Henrique Capriles. It happened to Leopoldo López,” she said of two other prominent opposition leaders who have tried – and failed – to defeat Chavismo. “And I feel it has happened with Guaidó.”
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
