BOGOTA, June 8. /TASS/: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is convinced that Russia, China, Iran and Ciba are real friends of the country as they provide all-round help to Caracas, he said in the Venezuelan capital Sunday.
"Humanitarian aid is coming from China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. They are [Venezuela’s] true friends," Maduro said in a speech broadcast by the state TV.
He recalled that the US was offering $20 million worth of help, "but not a single dollar came through".
The political crisis in Venezuela exacerbated on January 23, 2019, when Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital of Caracas. Several countries, including the United States, most of the EU states, Lima Group members (excluding Mexico), Australia, Albania, Georgia and Israel, as well as the Organization of American States, recognized him.
Incumbent President of the country Nicolas Maduro, in turn, blasted the move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties with the US. In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.
