Venezuelan interim foreign minister resigns, signaling crumbling opposition

Julio Borges, the foreign minister for Venezuela’s U.S.-backed interim government and a leading figure in the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition, announced on Sunday that he is resigning from his post, just weeks after Venezuelan elections were won by strongman Nicolas Maduro’s ruling party in what many observers are claiming were yet another round of fraudulent elections.

Candidates from Maduro’s regime claimed a landslide victory last month — but U.S. officials warned of detentions of political leaders, bans on opposition candidates, media censorship and manipulation of voter registration.

During the elections — the first in which the opposition participated since 2017 — the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 20 of the 23 governorships, including the capital. The opposition only won in the states of Cojedes, Nueva Esparta and Zulia.

In a Nov. 22 statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "Fearful of the voice and vote of Venezuelans, the regime grossly skewed the process to determine the result of this election long before any ballots had been cast.”

"Maduro robs Venezuelans of their chance to shape their own future," he added.

Similarly, the European Union (EU) observer mission sent to monitor Venezuela’s regional elections denounced the “insufficient democratic conditions” and “the deterioration of the rule of law in a context of serious human rights violations.” The mission also emphasized “the need for an independent judiciary.”

But Borges believes that the interim government, led by Juan Guaido, is no longer serving its purpose, Reuters reported.

"The (interim) government makes sense as an instrument to get out of the dictatorship. But at this moment, in our way of seeing it, the interim government has been damaged," Borges said.

"Instead of being an instrument to fight the dictatorship, the interim government has become a kind of ... caste," he added.

The outgoing foreign minister told the press he would make his resignation official during a legislative session on Tuesday, but later added that the interim government should “disappear.”

Borges is a member of the First Justice party, one of the four major opposition parties and part of Guaido's coalition in the national assembly. Friction between the two lawmakers is well-known and representative of internal divisions and delayed alliance agreements among opposition parties.