UN Chief In Contact With Both Maduro Government, National Assembly - Spokesman

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres maintains contact with the members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and representatives of the opposition-led National Assembly, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Thursday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th March, 2019) UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres maintains contact with the members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and representatives of the opposition-led National Assembly, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Thursday.

"We continue to have contacts with people in the president's circle and, as well, there are contacts held at different levels... with the president of the National Assembly," Dujarric said.

The spokesman noted that the only direct contact Guterres has had with the leader of the National Assembly Juan Guaido is when the secretary general answered his letter.

In January, Guaido uploaded on Twitter a copy of a letter that he sent to Guterres, requesting that the United Nations undertake an emergency humanitarian action in Venezuela to supply urgently needed food and address what he termed were high levels of violence in the country.

Guterres responded to the letter by saying that the United Nations stood ready to scale up humanitarian activities in Venezuela, but consent and cooperation from the government of Venezuela were needed to take that action.

The crisis in Venezuela escalated in January when lawmaker Juan Guaido was elected president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which all other government branches have been refusing to recognize since 2016, and then declared himself the country's "interim president."

Incumbent President Maduro, who was sworn in for his second presidential term on January 10 after winning the May election, called Guaido's move an attempt to stage a coup orchestrated by Washington.