WILLEMSTAD - During a press conference, the Prime Minister of Curaçao Eugene Rhuggenaath announced that his government does recognize the Venezuelan Parliament as the elected representation of the people of the country together with its chairman Juan Guaido. But his government does not recognize Guaido, at this moment, as the interim President of the South American neighbor.

To the question whether Curaçao recognized Nicolas Maduro as President, the Prime Minister stated that his government is for free and fair elections. This is what the Netherlands declared after the elections this year in Venezuela. This is also the reason why the Kingdom did not participate in the installation of Maduro for a second term.

Foreign Relations is the responsibility of the Netherlands and the Kingdom has a Minister in charge of this which is Stef Blok, but the Prime Minister says that his government is keeping a close watch on the situation in Venezuela. His government and the entities involved are monitoring the situation and the consequences it could have for the islands. In this, Curaçao is working with the Netherlands and Aruba.

Europe remains reluctant to follow the steps of the US, which immediately recognized Guaido as the legitimate president. Instead the European Union called on Thursday for free and fair elections in Venezuela.

There is a growing pressure by Latin American presidents to recognize Guaido as president but in the meantime Curaçao will remain neutral. The diplomatic relations with Venezuela will remain intact. The government is negotiating with PDVSA and what is taking place in Venezuela right now will not affect this relation.