"As many of our Lima Group friends here have done already, I would like to take this opportunity to officially recognize interim President Guaido’s Representative to Canada Mr. Orlando Viera Blanco," Trudeau said. "We look forward to working with him on restoring democracy in Venezuela."
At the same time, the prime minister stated that Canada planned to provide $53 million in humanitarian aid to support the needs of the people of Venezuela.
"Today, Canada is stepping up and announcing $53 million to address the needs of Venezuelans on the ground, including the almost 3 million refugees," Trudeau said at the start of a meeting of the Lima Group on Venezuela in Ottawa.
His comments come after on January 29, Guaido announced he would appoint diplomatic representatives to a number of countries that have recognized him as interim president of Venezuela, including the United States, Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, Honduras and Peru.
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A majority of the Lima Group’s member states have been critical of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and have recognized Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.
The Lima Group is comprised of 14 states: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru, Guyana and St. Lucia.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in turn, has slammed Guaido’s move and called him a puppet of the United States. Maduro is recognized by China, Russia, Mexico and other countries as Venezuela’s legitimate president.
After that, Venezuela’s opposition envoy to the Lima Group Julio Borges told Sputnik that the bloc would like to establish contact with Russia and China to discuss the crisis in Venezuela.
