OUR Juan Guaidothe form of her opposition Venezuelasaid in Washington on Wednesday that he feared that if he returned to his homeland, “he could meet Navalny’s fate,” meaning Alexey NavalnyRussian dissident and imprisoned.

Guaidó, who arrived in the US on a plane from Colombia a few days ago, claiming he had been expelled by the Colombian authorities, took part in a forum yesterday at the Wilson Center think tank in the US capital.

“If you ask me today if I can return to Venezuela tomorrow, as I did in 2019 and 2020, or how Navalny returned (to Russia), I am sure that I could suffer the same fate as him,” the leader of the opposition said.

Protesters apparently supporting Nicolás Maduro’s government interrupted the debate chanting “Guaidó is a liar” before being escorted out of the room.

Mr. Guaido is not exactly persona non grata, but it is obvious that Washington is now distancing itself from him, the former protege of the United States.

“I’m not aware of any plans” to meet with an opposition politician, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Wednesday, when asked during a regular briefing for accredited editors if anything was planned during the week.

The person concerned stated that he intended to meet with US parliamentarians, however, there do not appear to be any meetings planned with Joe Biden government officials, at least not yet.

Mr. Guaidó traveled to the US after claiming he had been expelled from Colombia, where he wanted to appear uninvited at a recent international summit hosted by Bogotá on how to help resume dialogue in Venezuela. The oppositionist complained that the development was part of an ongoing “race”. Bogotá denied the deportation.

Arrived April 25 on a commercial flight to Miami (Florida, Southeast USA).

He explained at the Wilson Center yesterday that his wife, Fabiana Rosales, and their two daughters could travel to the US on Monday.

It is currently unclear if he plans to seek asylum in the US.

The opposition figure has been officially banned from leaving the country since 2019, as he faces various prosecutions, including for “high treason.”

The former speaker of the Venezuelan parliament has been appointed by the United States and its allies as the de facto interim president of the Latin American country since 2019, following the “controversial” re-election of Nicolás Maduro as president in 2018, in an election in which the opposition abstained and the result of which he refused to recognize. But in late 2022, Venezuela’s divided opposition put an end to Juan Guaidó’s “interim government”.

With information from APE-MPE and AFP