VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo called for \u200bVenezuela to remain an independent nation and said he was following developments after the US\u2019 toppling of President Nicolas Maduro with a \u201csoul full of concern\u201d on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Leo, the \u200cfirst American \u200cpope, also \u200ccalled for \u200brespect \u200cfor human rights and the rule of law \u201cas enshrined\u201d in Venezuela\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must not delay in overcoming violence and embarking on paths of justice and peace, while guaranteeing the country\u2019s sovereignty,\u201d the pope told \u200cpilgrims in St. \u200dPeter\u2019s Square during \u200dhis Sunday prayer.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Venezuela\u2019s toppled leader Nicolas Maduro was in a New York detention center on Sunday awaiting drug charges.<\/p>\n
Maduro, who wished his captors a \u201cHappy New Year\u201d on arrival, is due to appear in a Manhattan court on Monday.<\/p>\n
At home, his allies were still in charge and have denounced their leader\u2019s arrest. <\/p>\n
Streets were far quieter than usual on Sunday as Venezuelans anxiously discussed what would come next. Some stocked up on essentials but many simply hunkered indoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just taken the dog out and it feels like an abandoned city, people are shut inside,\u201d said Alejandra Palencia, 35, a psychologist in the city of Maracay. \u201cThere is fear and uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela\u2019s economy nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world\u2019s biggest exoduses.<\/p>\n
They were largely jubilant at the exit of Maduro, whose security forces repeatedly crushed opposition protests. The former union leader, bus driver and foreign minister was the dying Hugo Chavez\u2019s handpicked successor as president in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen,\u201d said Khaty Yanez, who lives in Chile.<\/p>\n
Trump says Maduro masterminded the \u200cflow of drugs into the US and was illegitimately in power due to vote-rigging.<\/p>\n
He denies those claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is \u200donly one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolas Maduro,\u201d said Delcy Rodriguez, \u200dwho took over Venezuela\u2019s interim presidency, in a defiant message to the US despite Trump\u2019s assertions she was open to working with them.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who is close to the military, urged Venezuelans to stand firm.<\/p>\n
US Special Forces swooped in on helicopters to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, under darkness in the early hours of Saturday after strikes on military installations in Caracas and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
While many Western nations oppose Maduro and say he stole the 2024 \u200belection, there were many calls for the US to respect international law and resolve the crisis diplomatically.<\/p>\n
There were also questions over the legality of seizing a foreign head of state. Democrats said they were misled at recent Congress briefings and demanded a plan for what is to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo called for \u200bVenezuela to remain an independent nation and said he was following developments after the US\u2019 toppling of President Nicolas Maduro with a \u201csoul full of concern\u201d on Sunday. Leo, the \u200cfirst American \u200cpope, also \u200ccalled for \u200brespect \u200cfor human rights and the rule of law \u201cas enshrined\u201d in Venezuela\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91865,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91848\/revisions\/91865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}