Earlier, Republican Prosecutor General Tarek William Saab said the authorities considered Guaydo the ideological inspirer of the invasion attempt.
The decision to arrest Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaydo in connection with a failed attempt to invade the country by a group of mercenaries should be made by the court, not the executive branch. This opinion was expressed by the head of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, at a Twitter-based press conference on Wednesday.
“As for Mr. Guaydo, this (decision to arrest) does not depend on my response”, – he said. – “It depends on the Venezuelan judiciary, and the prosecutor’s office, together with the court, must determine whether or not he should be taken into custody. On Monday, Attorney General of the Republic Tarek William Saab said that the authorities consider Guaydo the ideological inspiration behind the invasion attempt. However, no official charges have been brought against the opposition politician so far.”
The Venezuelan government reported on May 3 that it managed to prevent the infiltration of a group of mercenaries from Colombia. According to Caracas, they were going to stage a coup d’état.
On 23 January 2019, Guaydo, two days after his appointment as Speaker of Parliament was annulled by the Supreme Court, declared himself Acting President of Venezuela. He was recognized as interim head of state by the U.S., joined by the Lima Group countries (except Mexico), the Organization of American States and most EU countries.
Maduro called it a coup attempt and announced that he had broken off diplomatic relations with the United States. Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and Turkey expressed their support.