Venezuelans cry out for change – but they dread foreign intervention
2019-01-27 09:48:28 source：The Guardian
January 26, 2019
It was Friday lunchtime in Venezuela’s crumbling capital and Omar Mejías – for years a disciple of the comandante Hugo Chávez – had come to a plaza in the city’s east for what he hoped might be a glimpse of a brighter future.
On stage before him stood Juan Guaidó, a fresh-faced and until recently little-known politician, catapulted into the spotlight last week by the decision of the United States – and then a succession of other world powers – to recognise him, and not the incumbent Nicolás Maduro, as the legitimate president of this oil-rich but economically ravaged South American nation.
“I’m here to see what this señor has to say, what proposals he has … because things aren’t easy,” said Mejías, 53, a resident of Valles del Tuy, a traditional Chavista stronghold in south Caracas, who was considering transferring his loyalties because of his country’s collapse under Maduro. Borrowing one of the comandante’s famous expressions to describe Venezuela’s disintegration, Mejías added: “You don’t need glasses to see what’s right before your eyes.”
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