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Venezuela’s Juan Guaido on Potential Elections, Russia: Interview Highlights

Venezuela’s Juan Guaido on Potential Elections, Russia: Interview Highlights

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido offered key insights into the country’s most pressing matters during an interview with Bloomberg in Caracas on Thursday. Here are some of the key quotes.

State of the Opposition

“We all want Maduro to go. We’re united in our cause. There’s debate due to the complexity of the situation, about what our best tools are, the efforts we’re coordinating and how to lead this process – and all options are on the table."

Venezuela’s Juan Guaido on Potential Elections, Russia: Interview Highlights

“If 40 people want to compete for the presidency, they’re welcome to. That’s democracy.”

Potential Elections

“We need a credible and transparent electoral authority, that includes Venezuelans abroad. There can’t be disqualified candidates or political prisoners. Maduro has to at least step away from the role, he can’t be in power if we’re to have really free elections."

Assets Abroad

“Time matters. It’s not the same to recover the oil industry in a month than to do so in a year, when oil fields could be destroyed. There are many things that could happen to make it easier for us to protect our assets, but the idea is to protect the nation’s assets that they indebted. My generation did not ask for these bills, yet we’re the ones that have to face them."

Russia and China

“We saw Xi Jinping and Putin’s statement and welcome it because it speaks of alternatives. It’s clear to the region and the world that we need to look for an alternative. It recognizes there’s several player and that there’s a problem to solve."

Central Bank Data Release

“They are recognizing that what we have been denouncing for so many year is true, the economic disaster they’ve been creating is a product of their ineptitude, corruption and poor economic model. Their own data exposes that we’re digging ourselves into a hole and we need to address that as soon as possible."

--With assistance from Andrew Rosati.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Laya in Caracas at playa2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net

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