'Crumbling Before Our Eyes': Guaido Prop Falls Mid-Speech, Draws Comparisons to Failed 'Presidency'
03:11 GMT 23.11.2021 (Updated: 19:03 GMT 23.11.2021)
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Struggling Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido suffered another public humiliation on Monday when the coat of arms affixed to his television set tumbled to the ground during a news conference.
The chuckle-inducing moment unfolded mid-press conference as Guaido attempted to downplay the results of Venezuela’s regional election.
Sunday’s vote, which saw victories for President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela in 20 of the country’s 23 states, came as a huge blow to Guaido, whose faltering four-year campaign to unseat the elected president through non-democratic means has struggled to maintain international support.
Sham Guaido “presidency” literally crumbling before our eyes https://t.co/52OR9JVYiI
— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) November 22, 2021
Footage shared widely on social media shows a visibly-shocked Guaido turning mid-sentence as his central set piece falls from the wall behind him at the tail end of his press conference.
The embarrassing episode prompted widespread derision among critics who view the failed presidential aspirant as a puppet of Washington, and who saw the video as a metaphor for Guaido’s floundering US-backed crusade to oust Maduro.
Fake ass president in front of a fake ass set. https://t.co/2oY4PgxHaE
— przidnt🥭 (@przidnt1) November 22, 2021
The perfect metaphor for American puppet Juan Guaidó’s claim of being the president of Venezuela since 2018 😂 🤡 https://t.co/RbTLZ5WbQU
— Gritty Get Litty 🚩 (@GrittyGetLitty) November 22, 2021
A nice visual metaphor of how Juan Guaidó's "presidency" is collapsing under its own weight. 🇻🇪😂 pic.twitter.com/QsJVUfClW8
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) November 22, 2021
Another critic described the viral clip as being the perfect four second summary of Guaido's interim government.
Resumen del gobierno interino en 4 segundos:pic.twitter.com/tKNfh70bym
— El Chigüire Bipolar (@ChiguireBipolar) November 22, 2021
Guaido’s position on the elections has done little to stymie such accusations. Last week, he insisted that “there aren’t conditions for free and fair elections in Venezuela,” even as his own Popular Will party ultimately decided to participate–as did the European Union, which has refused to observe Venezuelan elections since 2006. And now, after the dominant performance by the party of the Venezuelan president, an increasingly-isolated Guaido finds himself struggling to delegitimize the elections in which many of his ostensible allies participated.
So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s apparently turning once again to his oldest and most reliable collaborator: the US government. Upon concluding his remarks, he assured a Bloomberg reporter that Biden will continue to back his campaign to overthrow Maduro through the end of 2022. But the Biden administration has yet to confirm this, saying only that they still view Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president in a statement Monday.
Outside of Washington, there’s a growing sense that it’s only a matter of time before Guaido's claim to the presidency overstays its welcome. Months before arriving last month to participate as electoral observers in Venezuela’s regional elections, European Union member states had already collectively decided to stop referring to Guaido as the South American nation's “interim president.”
Though accompanied by delegations from the United Nations and the Carter Center, it was the EU's presence specifically which drew the ire of high-profile regime change advocates, including noted war criminal and convicted perjurer Elliott Abrams and Carlos Vecchio, Juan Guaido's so-called ambassador to the US. Both men accused EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of 'legitimizing' the Venezuelan electoral process earlier this month, in what could be a preview of an impending divergence in western powers’ policy toward the socialist nation.
Outside of Washington, there’s a growing sense that it’s only a matter of time before Guaido's claim to the presidency overstays its welcome. Months before arriving last month to participate as electoral observers in Venezuela’s regional elections, European Union member states had already collectively decided to stop referring to Guaido as the South American nation's “interim president.”
Though accompanied by delegations from the United Nations and the Carter Center, it was the EU's presence specifically which drew the ire of high-profile regime change advocates, including noted war criminal and convicted perjurer Elliott Abrams and Carlos Vecchio, Juan Guaido's so-called ambassador to the US. Both men accused EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of 'legitimizing' the Venezuelan electoral process earlier this month, in what could be a preview of an impending divergence in western powers’ policy toward the socialist nation.
Their report on Venezuela's electoral conditions is due Tuesday. Until then, observers are left to wonder who’ll fall off first— Guaido, or the presidential paraphernalia propping him up.
