(CNN) Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó said Thursday he will return to his country by Monday, and that a dialogue with President Nicolas Maduro won't be possible without discussing elections.

Guaidó, who was in Brazil for a meeting with President Jair Bolsonaro, said he will return to Venezuela despite threats he and his family have received, including prison time.

The announcement came a day after Guaidó said he would exercise his duties as president as soon as he returns to Venezuela.

Before meeting with Bolsonaro on Thursday, Guaidó also met with European Union ambassadors to Brazil.

"We appreciate the firm international support to our path and the support for the humanitarian aid," said Guaidó.

Read More</s>The man who would be paramount leader of a country in upheaval is on the move. He heads to Paraguay on Friday after lobbying in Brazil for international pressure on the government back home and coordinating a failed attempt to deliver aid across the Colombian border to desperate Venezuelans.

Caracas is also on the itinerary for Juan Guaidó , the head of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress who has declared himself interim president. He said Thursday that he will be coming home in the coming days despite "threats," in another looming flashpoint in his power struggle with Nicolás Maduro, the military-backed president targeted by U.S. oil sanctions aimed at forcing his ouster.

A defiant return by Mr. Guaidó to steer protests against Mr. Maduro would test the resolve of a socialist government that says the National Assembly leader left the country illegally. Even so, any attempt to arrest Guaidó could further inflame tensions in a country where hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine and other hardships have forced more than 3 million Venezuelans – about one-tenth of the population – to flee the country in the last few years.

Just how he will get back into Venezuela, or whether Venezuelan security forces would try to block him, is unclear. In an interview with the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Guaidó described his secretive exit from Venezuela, a 42-hour trip from Caracas to the Colombian border during which he changed clothes and had to leave behind his bag.

"We had to talk to a lot of military personnel, we had to talk to a lot of people who are trying to help us," said Guaidó, who has urged the military leadership to turn against Maduro – an appeal that has failed despite the desertions of some hundreds of lower-ranking members of the security forces.

Maduro, often combative in public, recently took a softer tone during a televised appearance in which he declared that the annual Carnival season would start Thursday, a couple of days earlier than usual.

"President Rhythm, President Passion, that's me," said Maduro, who has denounced his opponents as killers and criminals in fiery speeches reminiscent of the style of his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez. The late leader's rhetoric about imperialism and Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution, along with subsidies for the poor, galvanized a support base that has eroded under Maduro.

The United States and about 50 other countries recognize Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate leader and support his claim that Maduro was re-elected last year in a flawed vote. But the opposition leader's efforts to wrest power from his adversary have stumbled, raising the prospect of a protracted standoff in which United States sanctions inflict deeper economic pain on Venezuelans.

Guaidó had announced that last weekend's attempt to deliver several hundred tons of US-supplied humanitarian aid from Colombia into Venezuela would be politically decisive, but Venezuelan forces blocked the aid that Maduro called part of a scheme to overthrow his government.

Venezuela closed the border with Colombia ahead of clashes with protesters, inflicting more hardship. Some Venezuelan schoolchildren who receive subsidized education in the Colombian border city of Cucuta have been unable to cross over. Many people in the Venezuelan town of Urena don't have enough food and lack basic medicines that they were sometimes able to get on the Colombian side.

Speaking in Brazil on Thursday, Guaidó said: "The regime's formula of violence and persecution does not work and is not working. It's only delaying the inevitable: a democratic transition in Venezuela."

The United States remains committed to delivering medicine, hygiene kits and other aid to Venezuela, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

"We are hopeful that over the next couple of weeks, we can really begin to make a dent in that problem," Mr. Pompeo said.

It remains to be seen whether US sanctions on the country with the world's largest oil reserves will further weaken Maduro, or divert blame for increasing deprivation to the US-backed opposition. While Guaidó says all options for Maduro's removal are on the table – a comment interpreted as an openness to US military intervention – Colombia, Brazil and other countries that back the opposition appear more cautious, insisting on a peaceful solution to Venezuela's crisis.

Also Thursday, the United Nations Security Council rejected rival resolutions on Venezuela sponsored by the US, which supports Guaidó, and Russia, which backs Maduro.

The US draft, vetoed by Russia and China, urged "the peaceful restoration of democracy" in Venezuela, free and fair presidential elections and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid. The Russian draft expressed concern at threats to use force against Venezuela and interfere in the country's domestic affairs and would have reaffirmed the government's primary role in initiating international assistance.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. Associated Press writers Luis Andres Henao in Caracas, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, and Anna Jean Kaiser in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.</s>Law360 (March 1, 2019, 6:51 PM EST) -- Interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó has urged the D.C. Circuit to strike recent submissions Nicolás Maduro's government made in an appeal to nix confirmation of a $1.2 billion arbitral award to...

To view the full article, register now.</s>Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is visiting Brazil to gather support for his bid to push for a change of government in his country. Guaidó said on Thursday that he will return to Caracas by Monday despite threats of imprisonment.

Guaidó said of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s regime that it was “weak, lacking support in Venezuela and international recognition.”

After meeting with Brazil’s right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, Guaidó spoke to reporters and called for the enforcement of economic sanctions against the Maduro government to continue “so that everything is not robbed in Venezuela.”

Guaidó has been recognized by most Western nations as the rightful leader of Venezuela after invoking constitutional provisions last month to assume an interim presidency. But, as Reuters reports, he faces possible arrest if he returns to Venezuela for disobeying a Supreme Court order that he should not leave the country pending an investigation.

Guaidó said on Thursday that he and his family had received threats, including of prison. He did not provide further details.</s>Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaidó has warned he could be arrested when he returns to his country later this week, after he traveled to Colombia to work on efforts to remove the ruling Maduro regime from power.

Over the past week, Guaidó has held meetings with other regional leaders including the Presidents of Colombia and Chile, Ivan Duque and Sebastian Piñera, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, as the international community plans the next steps for removing the socialist regime from office.

“We do not assume this commitment to fight from the outside, and for that reason, I will soon be in Venezuela to exercise my duties as President,” Guaidó wrote on Twitter. “I will circulate audio with the next instructions. I ask you to widely disseminate our message. Nothing will stop us.”

In an interview with CNN, the 35-year-old also warned that he could be arrested upon his return, but said that such a move would only further mobilize opposition to the socialist regime.

“The exercise of politics in Venezuela is criminalized, not only towards me. Today there are 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela, there are political assassinations,” he said. “Venezuela is mobilized towards change and arresting someone (does) not calm the protest. On the contrary, it speeds it up and makes it grow.”

U.S. Special Representative to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said on Tuesday that the U.S. remained “deeply concerned” about Guaidó’s safety should he return to his homeland. Last week, five people were killed and hundreds were more injured as security forces attempted to block the entry of U.S. humanitarian aid into the country.

However, Abrams also expressed optimism that there would be a U.N. resolution targeting the Maduro regime and its use of violent repression against civilians and confirmed that the U.S. would impose further economic financial sanctions on high ranking socialist officials.

“I think we will have a resolution this week, which will certainly call for the admission of humanitarian aid into Venezuela and will comment on the events of the last few days,” he said following a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue. “We announced some sanctions yesterday. There will be more this week, there will be more next week. We will continue to impose sanctions on high-ranking members of the regime and people who handle their financial affairs.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.</s>GENEVA — Venezuela’s foreign minister has floated the idea of talks between President Nicolas Maduro and U.S. President Donald Trump to seek “common ground” over his country’s escalating crisis.

Jorge Arreaza told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday: “We’re calling for dialogue, dialogue with the United States — why not between Presidents Maduro and Trump? Why shouldn’t they meet so that they could try to find common ground and explain their differences?” He also called for “dialogue between Venezuelan citizens.”

Arreaza spent much of a speech to the top U.N. human rights body denouncing what he called U.S. “aggression” against his country.

The U.S. and over 50 other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president.</s>The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is reaching a boiling point.

Following a weekend that saw violent and deadly clashes at the border with Brazil and Colombia, the Maduro regime continues to withhold U.S.-deployed aid from the Venezuelan people. They have detained journalists reporting on the widespread poverty that has decimated the Latin American country and forced over 3 million citizens to flee since 2014.

Even so, Independent Vermont Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has garnered controversy by failing to label embattled President Nicolás Maduro as a “dictator.”

“I think it’s fair to say that the last election was undemocratic, but there are still Democratic operations taking place in that country. The point is, what I’m calling for right now is internationally supervised fair election,” Sanders commented in a CNN town hall on Monday.

The most recent election held in Venezuela has been met with speculation from the global community including most of South America and the United States which have refused to legitimize Maduro's presidency. He was sworn in on January 10, 2019 for a brand-new six-year term. However, the U.S. has recognized opposition party leader Juan Guaidó as the new interim president of Venezuela.

Scott Bolden, a former chair of the Washington D.C. Democratic Party, told FOX Business’ Trish Regan that Sanders should call Maduro what he truly is.

“The pictures to me are obvious and there needs to be new elections,” Bolden said on Wednesday. “Now he said that, but he doesn't want to call this person a dictator. All the data coming out of there says that he is.”

Maduro has continued the policies brought in by his predecessor Hugo Chávez, who steered the country toward socialism since becoming Venezuela's president in 1999. Many have blamed these policies for the squandering of Venezuela's oil wealth and depleting its once vibrant economy.

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Sanders is a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist whose campaign is based largely on government-funded social welfare programs, similar to the Chávez and Maduro regimes.

"He masquerades as a Democrat and he's a Socialist," Bolden said on “Trish Regan Primetime.” “What convinces me is this blockade of stopping food and resources and water coming into the country. I don't care if you’re a dictator or a Democratic president of your country, starving your people and treating them that way for political purposes, you lose me on that. I cannot support that.”</s>An enraged Nicolás Maduro freaked out and had a prominent journalist detained because the reporter dared show the Venezuelan president video of young men scavenging discarded food from the back of a garbage truck.

Maduro was being interviewed by Univision anchor Jorge Ramos when the despot ended the sit-down and ordered Ramos held.

In a video posted on Facebook after his release, Ramos said things started going downhill Monday when he asked Maduro whether he was a “dictator.”

Then he said he pulled out an iPad with a video showing three of backpack-wearing young men grabbing for food being tossed into a garbage truck and eating some of the leftovers. One of the men, speaking in Spanish, is seen denouncing Maduro and calling for him to go.

Ramos, who arrived back in Miami on Tuesday, said he and his team were separated and detained after the interview ended and that he still had not gotten back his equipment.

He said the Venezuelan government had robbed them of their work and he is demanding that it be returned.

“They are going to say that they already deleted the images of the interview, but they also recorded the interview with three cameras, I saw them, so the interview is there,” Ramos told reporters in Miami.

“If Maduro is not a coward, if Maduro has the pants to show his face, then he should show the complete interview.”

Maduro is desperately clinging to power after opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the rightful president and called for Maduro to go.

The United States, NATO and other countries have come out in support of Guaidó, but military commanders, many of them bought off by the president, remain loyal to Maduro so far.

While the brass may be loyal, hundreds of other military members are defecting daily, with many walking over the border into Colombia.

“I was tired of people seeing me as just one more of them,” Sgt. Jorge Torres said, referring to Maduro’s socialist government. “I’m not.”

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition’s envoy to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, met with President Trump recently and asked him to increase pressure on Maduro, Vecchio’s office announced.

Vecchio wrote in a tweet that he met with Trump when the president made a speech in Florida. In the Feb. 18 speech, Trump warned members of Venezuela’s military who remain loyal to Maduro that they are risking their lives and urged them to allow humanitarian aid into the country.

The statement from the opposition’s envoy came a day after the United States targeted Venezuela’s government with new sanctions and called on allies to freeze the assets of state-owned oil company PDVSA after deadly violence blocked humanitarian aid from the country over the weekend.</s>BRASILIA (Reuters) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido will visit Brazil on Thursday and meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and other government officials, his envoy in Brasilia, Maria Teresa Belandria, said by telephone on Wednesday.

His visit to Brasilia was first reported by Venezuela’s El Nacional newspaper, which said Guaidó will visit several Latin American nations to discuss the crisis in his country. Brazil and dozens of other countries have recognized him as the interim president of Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.</s>Guaidó arrives to Brasilia as part of a continental tour

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido arrived in Brazil on Wednesday night to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as part of a tour of several nations to drum up international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

Guaido last month invoked constitutional provisions to assume an interim presidency, arguing Maduro's re-election was fraudulent. He has since recognized by most Western nations - including Brazil - as Venezuela's rightful leader.

The congress chief has organized nationwide protests over the past month while the United States has imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela's key oil industry and government officials. Yet Maduro retains control of state institutions, leaving the two sides locked in a stalemate.

Guaido arrived in Brasilia for a two-day visit from Bogota, where he had attended a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence and the regional Lima group about how to resolve the political and economic crisis in Venezuela.

The interim president of Venezuela will meet on Thursday afternoon with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Planalto Palace, said Maria Teresa Belandria, appointed by Guaido as his ambassador to Brazil and recognized as such by the far-right Bolsonaro government.

After the meeting, Guaido will hold a news conference, the envoy said. While in the Brazilian capital, Guaido will also meet with diplomats of other countries that have recognized him as Venezuela's interim leader, pending new presidential elections, Belandria said.

Brazil is hosting one of the Venezuelan opposition's collection points for aid and together with the United States has funded the 200 tons of food and medicine being stockpiled in the northern city of Boa Vista.

The opposition failed to get that aid across the border as planned last weekend after Maduro closed it, with four people killed and dozens wounded by gunfire in rioting

Maduro denies there is a crisis in the country despite overseeing a hyperinflationary meltdown that has seen sharp increases in malnutrition and the spread of preventable disease, as well as an exodus of 3.4 million Venezuelans since 2015.

The socialist leader and his allies, like Russia and Cuba, have accused the opposition of using aid as an excuse for foreign intervention and the United States of preparing for a military incursion.

The US special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, denied those accusations on Tuesday but said Washington would impose more sanctions on high-ranking members of the regime and their financial affairs this week and next.

Venezuelan foreign minister Jorge Arreaza, addressing the UN Human Rights Council, suggested that Maduro and Trump meet to try to find common ground and explain their differences. He also said his country had lost US$30 billion in assets confiscated since November 2017 under sanctions.

US Vice President Mike Pence ruled out prospects of talks. The only thing to discuss with Maduro at this point is the time and date for his departure, he said on Twitter.

For democracy to return and for Venezuela to rebuild - Maduro must go, Pence said.
Venezuelan opposition leader and interim president Juan Guaidó said Thursday he will return to his country by Monday, and that a dialogue with President Nicolás Maduro won't be possible without discussing elections.