WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A month after US Pres Donald Trump declared Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro to be an illegitimate president, the leftist firebrand is still clinging to power and options for the United States look increasingly narrow.
Trump, in a rare global crisis in which he has enjoyed strong international backing, on Jan 23 recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president as Venezuela’s economy collapses and millions flee to neighboring countries.
The Trump administration has recently taken more brazen action.
It has blocked the Maduro government’s lifeblood by freezing accounts of Citgo, Venezuela’s oil company in the United States, and over the weekend backed efforts to force in badly needed aid through Colombia and Brazil, sparking a border melee in which four people were killed and hundreds injured.
Yet while Maduro is deeply weakened, the military has largely stood by him. And he still enjoys the diplomatic support of China and Russia, with Beijing in particular worried whether an opposition-led Venezuela would repay billions of dollars in loans.
Venezuela’s long-fractious opposition has rallied around the fresh leadership of 35-year-old Guaido, who met Monday in Colombia with US President Mike Pence.
A US official said Washington was looking at new sanctions, explaining, “We can’t have another Cuba.” But a full-out blockade of Venezuela, as the United States pursued for decades in Cuba, would likely draw resistance in the region.
Trump has openly mused of military intervention but has faced vocal pushback from allies including Canada, which took a leading role in recognizing Guaido, as well as Brazil’s new right-wing government which has sought close ties with Washington.
The United States, however, has increased reconnaissance flights off Venezuela, a US official said, while saying that all have been in international air space.
For Trump, removing Maduro has offered a politically attractive cause around which to rally the growing Venezuelan American community in the key state of Florida — and a way to send a message to Maduro ally Cuba.
Trump has also vigorously sought to use Venezuela to tarnish domestic foes, trying to link Maduro’s socialism to Democrats pushing to reduce US income inequality.
But one side that may have believed Trump on the military option — the opposition.
Guaido had hoped that Saturday’s aid mobilization with the support of the United States and Colombia would deliver the “knockout blow” to Maduro..
Instead, while Colombia says 300 troops defected from the Venezuelan army, the aid did not get through despite warnings to Venezuela of the Trump administration, which in effect made clear it wants a political, rather than military, solution. — NNN-AGENCIES
