The storm Nepal Communist Party Co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal kicked up by commenting on the internal politics of Venezuela refuses to die down. On Jan 23, the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself acting president of his country claiming that the incumbent President Nicolas Maduro had lost public faith. On the same day, US President Donald Trump recognized Guaidó as Venezuela’s president. Following this, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said time had come “for every other nation to pick a side… Either you stand with the forces of freedom or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem.”
On Jan 25, speaking on behalf of his party—when Prime Minister and NCP co-chairman KP Sharma Oli was in Davos—Dahal issued a strong statement on Venezuela. He termed Guaidó’s elevation as president and the prompt US recognition as “the grand design against the legitimately elected President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan people.” The statement also accused the US of “trying to create chaos and violence” in Venezuela, urging it instead to respect the UN principles of “non-interference, national sovereignty and peaceful coexistence”.
American officials in Kathmandu were nonplused. Was this the position of the NCP-led government of Nepal, the US Embassy wanted to know? Following this reaction, and endless speculations in popular media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Jan 29 issued an ‘official statement’ saying “Nepal believes that internal political problems of a country need to be resolved within its constitutional parameters in a democratic manner, free from external interferences”. In other words, the government position is not much different to Dahal’s statement; the underlying message being that the ‘external interference’ of the US in Venezuela is unacceptable.
There are a few explanations for this. One, following the withering criticism of the Oli government for ‘agreeing’ to be a part of the US-led (and arguably anti-China) Indo-Pacific Strategy, the communist government felt the need to assert its independent status. Two, Nepal being pulled into the US strategic grouping would not have gone down well in Beijing, and the Oli government wanted to show it is far from an ‘American stooge’. It is also not a coincidence that Beijing is lending support to Maduro. The Chinese depend on him to protect their investments (now upward of $82 billion) in the Bolivarian republic.
Many have labelled Nepal government’s handling of the whole affair ‘immature’. ‘Calculated’ may be a better word.
