(14 Feb 2020) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Friday that authorities haven't detained opposition leader Juan Guaido because the courts haven't ordered it, but warned that it will happen.
Maduro made the remark in a meeting with the international press three days after Guaido returned from a tour to the U.S. and Europe, in defiance of a court order prohibiting him from leaving the country.
Despite the order, migration officials let Guaido into the country after he arrived on a commercial flight at Venezuela's main international airport.
Maduro said that the day Venezuela's justice system decides Guaido should be imprisoned for crimes commited, warning that his arrest will eventually come.
"The day the courts of the republic mandate to arrest Mr. Juan Guaido for all the crimes he has committed, that day he goes to jail, be sure. That day has not come, but it will come."
Maduro delivered an angry diatribe against U.S. sanctions, forcing him to make decisions seemingly in contradiction to his government's socialist ideology to keep the Venezuelan economy afloat.
Purchases in U.S. dollars are common in Venezuela, and the dollarization has helped fuel a limited revival of Venezuela's economy in cities like the capital while also highlighting disparities between those who do and do not have access to dollar bills.
Maduro loosened rigid currency control in place for 16 years last May, allowing banks to buy and sell U.S. dollars at any exchange rate, making it far easier for entrepreneurs to operate in a currency accepted internationally.
"Having to choose whether to repress or permit, I chose to permit it," he said of the growing dollarization. "It was a choice in the middle of a war. And that choice has allowed the economy to breathe."
Maduro has held on to power despite runaway hyperinflation, a massive exodus and shortages of food and medicine – and Guaido's international recognition. The 36-year-old opposition leader is recognized by nearly 60 nations as Venezuela's rightful president.
Maduro also said that he seeks to prove before the International Court of Justice that Washington commits crimes against humanity by applying sanctions against Venezuela that seriously affect the lives of Venezuelans to force a change of government in the country.
The action seeks to force Washington to stop applying sanctions to Venezuela.
Maduro accused the U.S. government of causing death and suffering among the Venezuelan population in recent years with sanctions against the people of Venezuela, affecting food, medicine and other medical supplies.
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