[rad-green] Guaido Weakened as Venezuela Legislature Probes Corruption Claim

*https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-03/guaido-weakens-as-venezuela-legislature-probes-corruption-claim
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-03/guaido-weakens-as-venezuela-legislature-probes-corruption-claim>*

*Bloomberg          December 3, 2019*

*Guaido Weakened as Venezuela Legislature Probes Corruption Claim*

*This is a blow to Guaido, who has failed to establish a transition
government after being recognized by dozens of countries earlier this
year. **Small opposition parties abandoned Guaido two months ago and began
negotiating with representatives of Maduro.*



*By Alex Vasquez and Patricia Laya - National Assembly starts investigating
nine legislators- Guaido vows to root out influence peddling, remain in
office*
[image: Juan Guaido]
*Juan Guaido Photographer: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg*

Venezuela’s National Assembly launched an investigation Tuesday into a
report of influence-peddling among nine opposition lawmakers, further
undermining interim President Juan Guaido’s efforts to oust Nicolas Maduro.

A committee was established to investigate lawmakers accused of lobbying
for a Colombian businessman linked to Alex Saab, a Maduro ally sanctioned
by the U.S. and indicted on money-laundering charges in July.

The alleged links were exposed days ago in an investigation by the
Venezuelan news site Armando.Info. The committee said it will present its
results in two weeks.

The affair is a blow to the opposition movement led by Guaido, which has
failed to establish a transition government after being recognized by
dozens of countries earlier this year.

“This comes as the opposition is already struggling to define a strategy,
having exhausted every option to force regime change,” Eurasia Group
analyst Risa Grais-Targow wrote this week.

Guaido, vowing to stamp out corruption even among those around him, said he
was suspending the named lawmakers. But several defied him by appearing at
the assembly on Tuesday.
Challenging Guaido

“I challenge you Juan Guaido: take us out, you’re going to have to kill us
first,” Luis Brito, one of the lawmakers, said at a press conference. He
claimed that there’s a rebellion among opposition lawmakers although so far
there is scant evidence of it.

Popular Will, Guaido’s political party, said Maduro’s government has sought
to bribe opposition parliamentarians ahead of a Jan. 5 vote on whether
Guaido remains assembly president. Small opposition parties abandoned
Guaido two months ago and began negotiating with representatives of Maduro.

Guaido’s approval rating, which was more than 60% in February, has slipped
to 42%, according to a survey by Caracas pollster Datanalisis. Last
January, Guaido declared himself interim president because Maduro’s
re-election the previous May was widely rejected as fraudulent. The U.S.
led an international move to recognize Guaido and call on Maduro to step
aside. With the help of a loyal military, Maduro has remained firmly in
power.

Maduro’s colleague, Socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello, celebrated
Guaido’s woes in a press conference on Monday.

“This comes as no surprise, that they’re accusing each other of
corruption,” he said. “Never before has the political opposition been in a
worse state than today.”

— With assistance by Fabiola Zerpa

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