Former Venezuelan Political Prisoner Calls On Country’s Military To Uphold Constitution And Force Regime Change

Former Venezuelan political prisoner Francisco Marquez called on the country’s military to uphold the constitution and assist with the presidential transition.

“Venezuelan militaries are Venezuelans and they live the same dire situations like all Venezuelans,” he said on CNN’s “New Day” Friday.

“And there’s been a lot of public support. I can name a couple. National guardsmen have publicly supported President [Juan] Guaido. Even police forces run by Chavista governors have publicly supported President Guaido. And what we’re really asking and we have to reiterate this — we’re asking Venezuelan military to uphold the Constitution. That is all. To uphold the Constitution, recognize President Guaido and start this transition process.”

Marquez claimed the process to replace President Nicolas Maduro is currently underway and predicted more people will come out publicly against his regime.

“That’s what we were asking of them — to respect the Constitution and restore the constitutional order that has been ruptured for the last two years by the Maduro regime,” he said. “And that process, by the way, is occurring and we expect to see more and more public stances very soon.”

Marquez also shared the details of his meeting with Vice President Pence this week and said the main focus was humanitarian aid for the Venezuelan people.

“We met with Vice President Pence a couple days ago. So what was asked in that meeting was something very important. First, humanitarian assistance. President Guaido has asked for the U.S. and other nations to ask help for humanitarian assistance which Maduro has denied that the crisis even exists,” he said.

“And we ask [for] full support to continue the sanctions regime — especially individual sanctions to those individuals who have stolen a lot of money from the Venezuelan people. And also to continue to work with the U.S. Partners and allies to create pressure on Maduro to support the agenda of President Guaido.”