US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened Venezuela with swift “economic actions” if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pushes on with a bid to change the nation’s constitution.
The warning came as Venezuela’s opposition coalition called a nationwide strike for tomorrow to begin a “final offensive” aimed at forcing Maduro from office through early elections.
Maduro was “a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator,” Trump said in a statement. “The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles.”
Trump did not specify what measures could be taken.
Trump’s stance explicitly sided with Venezuela’s opposition, which accuses Maduro of trying to accumulate dictatorial powers to hang on to the reins.
Maduro has said he is the target of a plot by a colluding opposition and the “imperialist” US.
There was no immediate reaction from the Venezuelan president.
Separately, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was in Cuba — a close ally of Venezuela — on Monday for meetings with Cuban President Raul Castro.
Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maria Angela Holguin said the Venezuelan crisis was discussed, but she denied reports that Santos traveled to convince Castro to act as a mediator.
Venezuela’s opposition coalition called the nationwide, 24-hour strike to add pressure to Maduro following an unofficial weekend vote it held that rejected the leader’s plan.
That plan, which Maduro has shown no sign of deviating from, entails a citizens’ body — called a “constituent assembly” — being elected on July 30 to redo the constitution.
Maduro says that path is the only way to secure peace and economic recovery in Venezuela.
His government has dismissed the opposition vote against it as illegal.
However, Trump said that “if the Maduro regime imposes its constituent assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions.”
Venezuela, with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, is almost entirely reliant on its crude exports.
The US imports about 270 million barrels of oil per year from Venezuela, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration, a volume in decline by about one-third compared with a decade ago.
Venezuela’s opposition is intent on a “final offensive” aimed at toppling Maduro through early elections.
On Sunday, more than a third of Venezuela’s 19 million voters took part in the opposition ballot, giving an overwhelming rejection to the election of a constituent assembly and backing a presidential election before Maduro’s term ends next year.
The poll was lauded by the EU, the UN, the US, Brazil and other countries.
However Maduro, backed by a loyal military, has up to now shrugged off the opposition tactics and the international criticism leveled at him.
Despite public anger at food and medicine shortages under a spiraling economic crisis that has swelled the opposition movement, authorities in Caracas portray the efforts against them as illegitimate and fomented by the US.
One leader in the opposition coalition, Freddy Guevara, said the planned strike was a “mechanism for pressure and to prepare for the definitive escalation to take place next week.”
A total of 7.6 million Venezuelans turned out for Sunday’s vote, at home and abroad, the opposition said.
That figure — although disputed by the Venezuelan government — was more than a third of Venezuela’s total 19 million voters.
The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “the high turnout in the plebiscite ... was an unmistakable sign the Venezuelan people want democracy quickly restored.”
Political analyst John Magdaleno told reporters that “there is evidence of a persistent and durable demand for political change.”
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