NEW YORK, Sept 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President
Donald Trump said that Venezuela was suffering “a tragedy of
historic proportions” as he pledged to do everything in his power to isolate
Pres Nicolas Maduro.
Trump told around two dozen Latin American leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that socialism had “destroyed” oil-rich Venezuela, but that the country’s people “will be free.”
“Today Venezuelans are starving and they’re dying from lack of medicine.
We will stand with the Venezuelan people every single day,” he said, adding
that socialism had “destroyed” the South American country.
Trump simultaneously suspended senior members of the Maduro government from entry into the United States via a proclamation posted on the White House website.
The document said the president was banning those “who formulate,
implement, or benefit from policies or actions that undermine or injure
Venezuela’s democratic institutions or impede the restoration of
constitutional government to Venezuela.”
Venezuela is gripped by an economic and political crisis, with both Maduro
and self-declared acting president Juan Guaido claiming to be the country’s
leader.
The United States, along with more than 50 other countries, recognizes
Guaido as leader of Venezuela which is in free fall, hit by low oil prices,
mismanagement and the impact of US sanctions.
Most of the international community did not recognize the results of
controversial polls that handed Maduro a second term last year.
Trump added at the meeting in a hotel in New York that the United States
was “doing everything we can to isolate Maduro and his cronies.”
“Venezuela’s rebuilding can begin the moment a peaceful transition
occurs,” he told counterparts, including the presidents of Argentina, Chile
and Ecuador.
Venezuela suffers from hyper-inflation and shortages of basic goods from
food to medicine, a crisis that has forced some 3.6 million people to flee
since 2016. — NNN-AGENCIES