Guaido, Pence agree to tighten noose on Maduro

BOGOTA: United States VicePresident Mike Pence and Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido agreed on a strategy to tighten the noose around President Nicolas Maduro following a meeting with regional allies in Colombia on Monday.

Pence announced more sanctions against Venezuela and US$56 million (RM227.6 million) in aid for neighbouring countries grappling with a flood of people fleeing the economically stricken country.

Maduro hit back in an interview broadcast the same day, saying the regional meeting was aimed at setting up a parallel government and accusing the US of coveting his country’s oil and being willing to go to war to get it.

“We hope for a peaceful transition to democracy, but President (Donald) Trump has made it clear: all options are on the table,” said Pence, who passed on Trump’s “100 per cent” support to Guaido.

The meeting came after four people were killed and hundreds injured as Guaido supporters clashed with Venezuelan security forces on the borders with Colombia and Brazil over the weekend in a thwarted bid to bring in humanitarian aid.

The Lima Group — made up of Latin American countries and Canada — met here and said it would ask the International Criminal Court to declare “the violence of Maduro’s criminal regime against the civilian population and the negation of access to international aide as a crime against humanity”.

Guaido warned that “indulging” Maduro “would be a threat to all of America”.