Vice President Mike Pence has told the Venezuelan leader trying to displace dictator Nicolas Maduro that the U.S. has his back, Pence told an assembly of U.S. diplomats Wednesday.
“I told him the United States will continue to stand strong with the people of Venezuela until democracy and liberty are restored,” Pence said at the State Department.
Pence’s direct diplomacy with Juan Guaido, president of his country’s National Assembly, underscored U.S. alignment with the lawmaker’s attempt to oust the Maduro regime. Guaido last week invoked a constitutional provision that allows the head of the legislature to assume the office of the presidency and call new elections. He was arrested and held briefly over the weekend, as Maduro was inaugurated to a six-year term and the regime has disbanded the Gauido-helmed legislature.
“We’ve imposed tough new sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s sham of a government,” Pence noted.
That attack on Maduro’s legitimacy has found an echo in key regional players, while affirming the legal theory of Guaido’s maneuver to displace Maduro. “Is it enough to abide by the constitution?” Guaido asked last week. “It must be the people of Venezuela, the armed forces, the international community that lead us to assume our mandate.”
Guaido is trying to crack Maduro’s relationship with the military by offering amnesty to anyone who helps “in the restitution of constitutional order,” as the assembly put it.
“We’re talking to middle and low-ranking military: break away from the fear,” he said Wednesday.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants President Trump to aid that effort by recognizing Guaido as president, expelling Maduro’s diplomats, and encouraging the lawmaker to form a government and appoint military rulers. All of those efforts could be facilitated by the current structure of U.S. sanctions on the Maduro regime.
“The frozen assets of the Venezuelan government should be put at the disposal of the legitimate government, so they can conduct a free and fair election and also use it to begin to rebuild the Country,” Rubio said Tuesday on the Senate floor.
