Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro faces ‘historic’ condemnations from his neighbors in South America, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said with approval on Saturday.
“If you see the statements the countries in the region of Venezuela have made about the illegitimacy of the Maduro regime, these are historic statements, very much different than they did in previous times,” Pompeo told reporters while traveling in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The topic of Maduro intruded upon an aggressive diplomatic tour of the Middle East, as the Venezuelan strongman began a new six-year term Thursday. The milestone provoked a dramatic maneuver from a leading opposition legislator, the head of the marginalized Venezuelan National Assembly, who invoked his authority under the Venezuelan constitution to assume the role of the president when necessary to oversee new elections.
“The activities that are ongoing in Venezuela are incredibly important,” said Pompeo. “The Maduro regime is illegitimate, and the United States continues to do as we have for the now almost two years of this administration, work diligently to restore a real democracy to that country.”
Some key South American leaders provided even more emphatic support to National Assembly President Juan Guaido’s call for Maduro’s ouster. “We welcome the assumption of [Juan Guaido] as interim President of Venezuela in accordance with Article 233 of the Political Constitution,” Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, tweeted Friday. “You have our support, that of the international community and of the people of Venezuela.”
Pompeo stopped short of using “interim president” to refer to Maduro’s rival, but made clear the U.S. goal in the country, which has suffered from food shortages that gave rise to protests and a refugee crisis.
“We’ve used the economic tools that we have, the capacity that we have to place sanctions to prevent the Maduro regime from gaining wealth and having resources,” he said. “The suffering that will take place inside of Venezuela if we don’t restore democracy there will be enormous. And we’re aiming to do it.”
