MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The Venezuelan authorities know that the US is trying to stage a Syrian scenario with "government in exile" in Caracas, Venezuela's Ambassador to Russia Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa told TASS on Thursday.
"After US Vice President Michael Pence called for overthrowing our government, our president decided to sever diplomatic relations with the US authorities and asked US diplomats to leave Caracas in the next 72 hours. This is an adequate response which our brave president provided to flagrant interference," Tortosa said. "No country can allow any other country to state their opinions about the internal affairs of the state, especially when it comes to calls for overthrowing [the authorities]," he added.
"We know what the next steps will be. The US will now have a justification [for their actions] that there are two governments in the country, like they did in our fraternal Syria with President Bashar Assad and its people. They created a government in exile, which led to great losses, to casualties, to demolition of the country's infrastructure," Tortosa said adding that "the Syrian people fought back, with Russia's help."
"In this case, the situation is the same. We will possibly look for political solutions, in order to take appropriate action," the ambassador said.
"If the situation becomes more complicated, the decision [to ask Russia for help] can only be made by President Maduro as a head of foreign policy," Tortos said in response to a question on whether Venezuela may ask Russia for help. The ambassador noted that Caracas values Moscow's assistance and political support.
Earlier on Wednesday Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido proclaimed himself as the country's acting president. Several countries recognized him as interim president, including Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, Columbia Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, Chile and Ecuador.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called it a coup organized by Washington and announced severing diplomatic relations with the United States.
