Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Tuesday that the Trump administration is firmly on the side of the coup plotters in Venezuela as violent clashes between the elected government and opposition forces led by Juan Guaido quickly escalated.
To @jguaido, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in #operacionlibertad—Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom & democracy are restored. Vayan con dios! #FreeVenezuela
“To Juan Guaido, the National Assembly, and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in Operacion Libertad—Estamos con ustedes! We are with you!” Pence tweeted. “America will stand with you until freedom and democracy are restored. Vayan con dios!”
Pence’s affirmation of U.S. support for the ongoing coup attempt in Venezuela came just hours after Guaido—surrounded by heavily armed soldiers and armored vehicles—called for a military uprising against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
The U.S. Vice President’s statement of support for the coup plot was echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton.
“The U.S. government fully supports the Venezuelan people in their quest for freedom and democracy,” Pompeo tweeted. “Democracy cannot be defeated.”
Today interim President Juan Guaido announced start of Operación Libertad. The U.S. Government fully supports the Venezuelan people in their quest for freedom and democracy. Democracy cannot be defeated. #EstamosUnidosVE
Bolton, who has repeatedly threatened the elected Venezuelan government in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s attempted coup, urged members of the military to defect and join the side of the coup plotters.
“Venezuelans have made clear that the current path toward democracy is irreversible,” Bolton tweeted. “Venezuela’s military has a choice: embrace democracy, protect civilians and members of the democratically-elected National Assembly, or face more man-made suffering and isolation.”
Venezuelans have made clear that the current path toward democracy is irreversible. Venezuela’s military has a choice: embrace democracy, protect civilians and members of the democratically-elected National Assembly, or face more man-made suffering and isolation.
Feature Photo | Venezuela’s self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque and Vice President Mike Pence, pose for a photo after a meeting of the Lima Group concerning Venezuela, at the Foreign Ministry in Bogota, Colombia, Feb. 25, 2019. Martin Mejia | AP
Venezuelan
opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez has sought refuge in Chile’s
embassy in Caracas, while at least 25 pro-Juan Guaido troops asked
Brazil for refuge. The news all but points to the failure of the
US-backed coup attempt.
Lopez
had been under house arrest since 2017, but was seen at the side of
Guaido – who had declared himself “interim president” of
Venezuela in January – on Tuesday morning, as supporters of the
US-backed opposition sought to take control of Caracas by force. At
least 50 people were injured and 11 arrested during the unrest on
Tuesday.
By
the afternoon, however, Chilean Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero
tweeted that Lopez, his wife Lilian Tintori, and their daughter were
“guests” of the Chilean diplomatic mission in Caracas, adding
that “Chile reaffirms commitment to Venezuelan democrats.”
Meanwhile,
at least 25 armed Guaido supporters have sought refuge in the
Brazilian embassy in Caracas, Brazilian media reported. There were no
officers among them, according to reports.
The
flight of Lopez and his family suggests that Guaido’s effort to win
over the Venezuelan military and police – with verbal support from
Washington – may have failed, as the majority of the security
forces apparently remained loyal to President Nicolas Maduro.
Lopez
founded Voluntad Popular, the party Guaido represents in the National
Assembly. The legislative body was last elected in 2015, and Maduro’s
government considers it defunct following the 2017 Constituent
Assembly election.
During
the 2014 protests in Venezuela, Lopez was arrested and charged with
arson, conspiracy, murder and terrorism. Some of the charges were
dropped, but he was found guilty of inciting violence in September
2015 and sentenced to almost 14 years in prison. He was placed under
house arrest in July 2017, until he reappeared in public on Tuesday
morning.
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The
development comes amid calls by Venezuelan self-proclaimed interim
President Juan Guaido, supported by the US, to ensure the “definitive
cessation of the usurpation” of legitimately elected President
Nicolas Maduro as part of his so-called Operation Freedom, which has
repeatedly failed to attract a large audience in the country.
Erik
Prince, the founder of the Blackwater private security
contractor and a supporter of US President Donald Trump, has
offered to deploy an army of mercenaries to help oust
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Reuters reported,
citing four sources with knowledge of the matter.
According
to the report, over the past few months Prince has
been seeking investment and political backing for his alleged
plans from Trump supporters and well-off Venezuelans living
in exile.
In
a series of private meetings, the Blackwater mastermind
reportedly pitched an idea to deploy 5,000 soldiers-for-hire
from Colombia and other South American nations on behalf
of Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed
interim president.
Reuters noted
that neither the White House, nor the Maduro government had responded
to the comments, while Edward Rodriguez, a spokesman for Guaido,
said that the country’s opposition officials had not discussed
security ops with Prince.
As
for Prince, his spokesperson Marc Cohen said earlier this month
that the Blackwater founder had “no plans to operate or
implement an operation in Venezuela”.
However,
according to Reuters, the director of investor relations
at Prince’s private equity firm Frontier Resource Group, Lital
Leshem, confirmed his interest in a Venezuela mission.
“He
does have a solution for Venezuela, just as he has a
solution for many other places”, the media outlet cited her
as saying.
Two
insiders with direct knowledge claim that Prince had requested
at least $40 million in funds from private investors,
as well as billions of dollars in frozen
Venezuelan assets – although it remains unclear how the Guaido-led
opposition could get hold of them.
His
efforts to start an intelligence mission in the chaos-hit
Latin American country are still ongoing, as one source alleged
that Prince had held meetings in mid-April.
Earlier
in the day, Guaido encouraged the nation and the Venezuelan
Armed Forces to take to the streets in Caracas and
ensure “the definitive cessation of the usurpation”
of constitutionally elected President Maduro.
His
calls were denounced by Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir
Lopez, who blasted Guaido’s “coup movement” and attempts to
“fill the country with violence”. The minister reaffirmed
the military’s loyalty to President Maduro, saying that the
situation at all military bases remained stable.
Venezuela
has been mired in an ongoing political crisis since early
January, when Guaido was elected the head of the opposition-led
National Assembly that all other government branches have been
refusing to recognise since 2016.
In
mid-January, two days after the Venezuelan Supreme Court
annulled his election, Guaido proclaimed himself interim president
in defiance of legitimate President Maduro, who was sworn
in for a second term on 10 January.
Guaido’s
move was immediately recognised by the United States, with other
countries around the world following suit, while Maduro
blasted Guaido as a US “puppet” and dismissed the entire
situation as a coup attempt staged by Washington.
As
the Venezuelan crisis was gaining momentum in late January, US
National Security Adviser John Bolton was spotted holding a yellow
notepad with the words “5,000 troops to Colombia”
during a presser on new sanctions against Caracas.
Given
POTUS’ repeated remarks that “all options are on the table”
for Venezuela, the mysterious note reinforced concerns that the
Trump administration was planning to deploy armed forces
to Colombia amid the political crisis in neighbouring
Venezuela.
At
the time, Acting US Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan told
reporters that he had not discussed the alleged plan with Bolton.
US
national security advisor John Bolton has called for “change of the
regime” in Caracas, and accused Cuba of controlling the current
government of Venezuela, while backing an opposition politician’s
attempt at armed coup.
Bolton
called on senior officials in the government of President Nicolas
Maduro to switch their support to the US-backed opposition leader
Juan Guaido, “if the Cubans will let them do it.”
US
President Donald Trump has threatened Cuba with a “full and
complete embargo, together with highest-level sanctions” if Havana
does not stop its alleged support for Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro’s government.
Trump
tweeted his demands on Tuesday, after Venezuelan opposition leader
Juan Guaido called for the military and police to take action against
Maduro.
Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro was ready to fly away to Cuba and leave
Caracas to the US-backed opposition leader, but Russia talked him out
of it, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed in interviews.
“He
had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning, as
we understand it. Russians indicated he should stay,” Pompeo told
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday afternoon, even as reports were
coming in that armed supporters of US-backed “interim president”
Juan Guaido were seeking asylum in the embassies of Brazil and Chile
in Caracas.
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