Leopoldo López: Maduro wants to strip me of my nationality for saying what Venezuelans think

The national head of Voluntad Popular (VP), Leopoldo López, said on Monday that Nicolás Maduro’s announcement that he would strip him of his Venezuelan nationality seeks “to intimidate Venezuelans so that what everyone thinks is not said,” in reference to the idea that he must leave power immediately.

“All of us Venezuelans are hopeful that Maduro will finally leave power for good. We have been fighting for many years on every front, and our aspiration remains the same: his departure from power,” López said at a press conference with international media from Madrid, Spain.

The VP leader described the announcement as an act “of profound arbitrariness” with no constitutional basis, recalling that the Constitution establishes that Venezuelans by birth cannot be stripped of their nationality, and stressed that “there is no precedent in history” for a measure of this kind.

He noted that the Constitution does establish, on the other hand, that nationality can be withdrawn from those not born in Venezuela, “as is the case of Nicolás Maduro,” he said.

López warned, however, that the stripping of identity he faces reflects what millions of Venezuelans outside the country are experiencing.

“A decade ago there were 500 thousand Venezuelans outside Venezuela. Today there are 8 million, a third of the population,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands cannot renew their passport or their ID card and are living the consequences of this dictatorship.”

He also denounced that the regime has made fraudulent use of identity documents, as documented in a report presented to the United States Senate last week.

“The dictatorship has handed out tens of thousands of passports to terrorists, people who have never set foot in Venezuela, as part of the extension of the organized crime headed by Nicolás Maduro,” he said.

López also recalled that the persecution against him “is not an isolated event,” but part of a sustained policy of repression.

“Ten years ago I was sentenced to 14 years in prison,” he noted. “The infamous judge Susana Barreiros established that I had an association to commit crimes with María Corina Machado and that I was guilty of having denounced Nicolás Maduro as corrupt, a repressor and a drug trafficker.”

On pressure from the United States

Asked about Washington’s recent actions, VP’s national head affirmed that the sanctions and accusations of the United States are not directed against Venezuela, but against the criminal structures of the regime.

“Here the threat is not Venezuela, the actions are not against Venezuela. This is an action against the Cartel de los Soles, the Tren de Aragua, and against the head of a criminal structure,” he said.

On another note, López criticized Colombian President Gustavo Petro for his support of the Venezuelan regime. “What is surprising is that Petro has become the main international spokesman in support of Maduro’s dictatorship. Either he is part of the same criminal structure or he benefits from it,” he warned.

He reiterated that most Venezuelans share a common aspiration: a transition to democracy led by President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, with the backing of leader María Corina Machado.

“There is nothing in Venezuela that unites more than the aspiration to see Maduro out of Miraflores,” he said. “We are going to continue in this struggle; it is not a two-day struggle, it is a struggle of decades.”