---
kind: "section"
citation: "22 U.S.C. § 9701"
title: "22"
title_heading: "Foreign Relations and Intercourse"
number: "9701"
heading: "Findings; sense of Congress in support of the Interim President of Venezuela"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/22/9701"
units:
  - "Chapter 104 — Venezuela Assistance"
  - "Subchapter I — Support for the Interim President of Venezuela and Recognition of the Venezuelan National Assembly"
---

# §9701. Findings; sense of Congress in support of the Interim President of Venezuela

- (a) **Findings—** Congress makes the following findings:
  - (1) Venezuela’s electoral event on May 20, 2018 was characterized by widespread fraud and did not comply with international standards for a free, fair, and transparent electoral process.
  - (2) Given the fraudulent nature of Venezuela’s May 20, 2018 electoral event, Nicolás Maduro’s tenure as President of Venezuela ended on January 10, 2019.
  - (3) The National Assembly of Venezuela approved a resolution on January 15, 2019 that terminated Nicolás Maduro’s authority as the President of Venezuela.
  - (4) On January 23, 2019, the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela was sworn in as the Interim President of Venezuela.
- (b) **Sense of Congress—** It is the sense of Congress—
  - (1) to [support](/usc/22/7432.md?p=12) the decisions by the United States Government, more than 50 governments around the world, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Parliament to recognize National Assembly President Juan Guaidó as the Interim President of Venezuela;
  - (2) to encourage the Interim President of Venezuela to advance efforts to hold democratic presidential elections in the shortest possible period; and
  - (3) that the Organization of American States, with [support](/usc/22/7432.md?p=12) from the United States Government and partner governments, should provide diplomatic, technical, and financial [support](/usc/22/7432.md?p=12) for a new presidential election in Venezuela that complies with international standards for a free, fair, and transparent electoral process.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 116–94, div. J, title I, § 111, Dec. 20, 2019, 133 Stat. 3030.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 116–94, div. J, title I, § 101, Dec. 20, 2019, 133 Stat. 3030, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter and amending provisions set out as a note under section 1701 of Title 50, War and National Defense] may be cited as the ‘Venezuela Emergency Relief, Democracy Assistance, and Development Act of 2019’ or the ‘VERDAD Act of 2019’.”