Six reporters were credited for the story that contained this line, which has almost as many errors: Guaidó was not even a candidate in the May 2018 (not January 2019) presidential elections; Maduro won that race with 68 percent of the vote, a credible total given the opposition’s boycott of the balloting. Guaidó was chosen not by voters but by the National Assembly—which has been suspended by the Venezuelan Supreme Court—and ultimately by the Trump administration. As for “pressure…mounting on Maduro,” that seems like a dubious reading indeed of the post-coup attempt political terrain.
After much social media ridicule, CNNcorrected the line, keeping in the bit about mounting pressure, but acknowledging that Guaidó “declared himself interim president.”
The New York Times hasn’t done any better. On the day of the fake coup, the Times reported, in an unusual unbylined article (at the end there was a note saying only that reporting was contributed by Isayen Herrera, Nicholas Casey, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Ana Vanessa Herrero, Rick Gladstone and Katie Rogers) headed “Venezuela Crisis: Guaidó Calls for Uprising as Clashes Erupt”:
CARACAS, Venezuela — It was a meeting that just a year ago would have been nearly unthinkable.
But on Tuesday, the president of Colombia, a nation that for years has been the strongest ally of the United States in Latin America, flew to Caracas to meet with the leader of Venezuela, a man whom the United States does not recognize as his country’s president and who is accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity.
The meeting between Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s newly elected leftist president, and Nicolás Maduro, a socialist-inspired leader who has eviscerated his country’s democratic institutions and helped drive much of the nation into poverty, marks a new chapter in the global approach to Venezuela.
For years, a coalition led by the United States has sought to push Mr. Maduro out through sanctions and isolation. But a growing number of nations, particularly new leftist governments in South America, have begun to soften their approach to Mr. Maduro.
In response to the visit, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said that Washington urged Colombia “to hold accountable governments that have discarded democratic norms, such as Maduro’s authoritarian regime.” But the Biden administration did not explicitly criticize or praise the move.
Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, swept to power in 1999 following a democratic election. When he died in 2013, his chosen successor, Mr. Maduro, became president.
Over time, corruption and mismanagement destroyed the economy, triggering a humanitarian crisis. To maintain their grip on power, Mr. Chávez and Mr. Maduro cracked down on the media and threw opposition figures into prison.
Since 2015, a quarter of the population has fled, and today Venezuelans are the largest group making their way through a treacherous jungle called the Darién in a desperate attempt to make it to the United States. A record number of Venezuelans have crossed into the United States in recent months.
The U.S. accused Mr. Maduro of rigging the 2018 presidential election, and in 2019 it recognized an opposition figure, Juan Guaidó, as the country’s legitimate president, a move that was followed by dozens of nations.
Since then, the U.S.-led strategy has been to try to move Mr. Maduro toward a new election through punishing economic sanctions.
And in recent months, many nations have opted to start engaging with the Maduro administration, a reflection, in part, of the election of leftists across South America. Following Sunday’s election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, all six of the largest countries in Latin America are or will soon be led by leaders who profess leftist ideals.
Bolivia resumed normal relations with Venezuela after the election of Luis Arce in 2020. Peru did the same last year following the election of Pedro Castillo. Earlier this year, President Alberto Fernández of Argentina said he would do something similar.
On Monday, Mr. Maduro stated that he and Mr. Lula had spoken on the phone and agreed to resume binational cooperation.
Members of the Venezuelan opposition alternately welcomed and condemned Mr. Petro’s visit.
In a statement sent to The New York Times, Mr. Guaidó, who is still recognized by the United States as the president of Venezuela, called Mr. Maduro a “dictator” and said that Mr. Petro must move away from “being an accomplice in the violation of human rights.”
But in an interview, Stalin González, part of another faction of the opposition, said that the international community had exhausted the strategy of isolation.
Only dialogue remained, he said, and the Venezuelan opposition should embrace attempts by the new left in South America to bring Mr. Maduro to the negotiating table.
“I hope that Petro will be an ally of democracy in Venezuela,” Mr. González said. “In the past, the strategy of pressure and more pressure was used and that did not work. We need people who encourage Maduro to democracy, to respect human rights and institutions again.”
Mr. Petro has described his decision to reinstate relations as a practical one.
