The US on Tuesday offered a path for the Venezuelan government to remove sanctions in the face of a mounting humanitarian crisis by accepting a transitional government that excludes US ally Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido.
The tactical shift came after more than a year of faltering US-led efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and as fears grow that the COVID-19 pandemic could spread rapidly both inside and from the poverty-stricken nation.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Guaido, as well as Maduro, should step aside for a transitional government comprising members of both their parties that would arrange elections in six to 12 months.
Photo: Reuters
If fully implemented, the US and EU would lift sanctions, including sweeping US restrictions on Venezuela’s key export of oil, the US Department of State said.
The IMF and other international lenders would be invited to plan economic relief for Venezuela, from which millions have fled as they face dire shortages of food and other necessities.
The plan also calls for the departure of foreign forces from Venezuela, a reference to the government’s support from Russia and Cuba.
“We believe this framework protects the interests and equities of all Venezuelan people who desperately seek a resolution to their dire political, economic and humanitarian crisis, and who know Venezuelans can have something better,” Pompeo said, urging all sides to consider it “carefully and seriously.”
Maduro has repeatedly ruled out ceding power and his government quickly rejected the framework, which is similar to a proposal put forward last year by Guaido in failed Norwegian-brokered talks.
“Venezuela is a free, sovereign, independent and democratic nation that does not and shall never accept instructions from any foreign government,” Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza said.
US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams downplayed the reaction as predictable, but said that Washington hoped to jump-start private talks within the regime and the military, which has remained loyal to Maduro.
The US has not shifted its goals, with Pompeo renewing support for Guaido — a 36-year-old engineer who has been recognized as interim president by about 60 nations since January last year — and while the framework says that any Venezuelan can run for president, Pompeo said that the US wanted Maduro out.
“We’ve made clear all along that Nicolas Maduro will never again govern Venezuela,” Pompeo told reporters.
Abrams later said that, while the US would accept any results of a free election, it did not believe Maduro could win.
“There is no possible way that Nicolas Maduro remains in power if Venezuelans get to choose their own fate and get to elect their own leaders,” Abrams said.
Asked if Guaido could run, Pompeo said: “Absolutely, yes.”
“I think he’s the most popular politician in Venezuela. I think if there were an election held today, he could do incredibly well, but more importantly we continue to support him,” he said. “When we put together this pathway to democracy, we worked closely with him.”
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