U.S., Russia vie for influence as Venezuela tensions mount
MOSCOW — President Donald Trump’s administration is accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of starving his people by blocking tons of American-supplied humanitarian aid stored next door in Colombia.
In Russia, the Kremlin sees the Venezuelan opposition’s plan to force aid across the border as a reckless pretext for ordering a foreign military intervention.
As tensions in Venezuela mount ahead of a Saturday showdown over humanitarian aid, both sides are digging in, highlighting how the South American nation’s crisis has become the latest fault line in a battle for global influence by Russia and the U.S.
At stake is the future of Venezuela, a once oil-rich country gripped by hyperinflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine. Opposition leader Juan Guaido last month declared himself the country’s rightful president, a claim backed by the United States and dozens of other nations that argue Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent because most opposition candidates were barred from running.
Russia, long a staunch Maduro ally, has remained firmly behind the socialist leader.
Russian state news agencies said Wednesday that a Russian shipment of medicine and medical equipment had arrived in Venezuela. The reports did not give the size of the shipment or say what it contained, although they cited a diplomatic source as saying the delivery was made under the aegis of the World Health Organization.
Hours earlier, Maduro had said 300 tons of medicine and other aid was on its way from Russia.
Carlos Romero, an international affairs professor at the Central University of Venezuela, said Russia’s support for Maduro is more symbolic than consequential when compared to the intense pressure against the government being exerted by the United States in what he called “Washington’s backyard.”
Still, he said, the two global powers were on a collision course in Venezuela, making it harder to negotiate a de-escalation of tensions.
“The fate of Venezuela is in the hands of outsiders,” said Romero, who has advised Venezuela’s opposition in the past. “It’s like two trains heading toward one another on the same track and every day that passes they gain speed.”
Guaido has called for “caravans” of tens of thousands of Venezuelans to join forces Saturday to carry the U.S. aid from Colombia into Venezuela, despite Maduro’s objections and the barricading of a key bridge linking Venezuela and the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where the aid is stored.
On Wednesday, Puerto Rico announced it had dispatched a boat carrying 250 tons of aid earmarked for Venezuela, while Brazil’s government said it would send supplies to the northern Brazilian state of Roraima on Saturday. Neither said how it expected to deliver the aid into Venezuela.
The Kremlin has compared the move to the deadly unrest movement in the Ukraine in 2013 that pushed out a pro-Russian president.
“If the organizers really want to just deliver some kind of humanitarian aid to the needy, why not use the specialized U.N. agencies that have extensive and invaluable experience in carrying out such operations?” Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reaffirmed strong criticism of the U.S.’ policy on Venezuela, saying Wednesday that Trump’s calls this week for the Venezuelan military to drop support for Maduro represent a flagrant violation of international law.
“This is undoubtedly a direct violation of the U.N. Charter and a direct intervention into the domestic affairs of an independent country,” Lavrov said. “When you listen to some representatives of the U.S. administration, it seems that diplomacy is simply ignored.”
Dmitry Rozental, a deputy head of the Russian state-funded Institute for Latin America in Moscow, said the Kremlin will continue to offer limited political support for Maduro.
“Russia will offer moral support, humanitarian aid and some economic assistance,” he said. But “the Russian leadership won’t place Venezuelan interests above the interests of Russia.”
He predicted that such aid will be limited in scale, noting that Russia can’t afford to satisfy Venezuela’s needs.
“Russia will offer some aid, but it will unlikely reach a great scale,” Rozental said. “It could be some humanitarian aid, as well as some assistance in helping soften the impact of U.S. sanctions.”
He added that as part of assistance to Venezuela, Russia may provide the chemical thinning agent needed to process the country’s heavy crude oil.
Rozental noted, however, that Russian companies and banks will be careful in their contacts with Venezuela to avoid potential U.S. sanctions. He pointed to reports that the Venezuelan state oil company’s accounts have been frozen by Russia-owned Gazprombank as an example of such caution.