Pence urges allies in Latin America to isolate Venezuela
Vice president: U.S. supporting burdened people
LIMA, Peru — Showing solidarity with opposition leaders, Vice President Mike Pence urged Latin American allies Friday to further isolate Venezuela, suggesting the Trump administration will seek additional sanctions to counter the country’s political crisis.
Pence, in Lima for the Summit of the Americas, was whisked away from the gathering and to his hotel shortly before President Donald Trump announced retaliatory strikes in Syria for apparent chemical weapons use. Pence had been scheduled to attend a banquet hosted by Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra on Friday night, and it was not clear if he would show up.
The vice president announced the U.S. would provide nearly $16 million in humanitarian assistance to Venezuelans who have fled their country under the rule of President Nicolas Maduro.
“We want one message to be clear: We are with the people of Venezuela,” Pence said at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, seated with a group of Venezuelan opposition leaders. The vice president called Maduro’s government a “dictatorship” and said the U.S. would continue to push a hard line against the leadership.
“The U.S. and our allies, I believe, are prepared to do much more,” Pence said, accusing Maduro of “refusing humanitarian aid to be delivered to Venezuela.” He said the U.S. would push “additional sanctions, additional isolation and additional diplomatic pressure — beginning in our hemisphere but across the wider world.”
Pence is subbing for Trump after the president pulled out of his first planned visit to Latin America to manage the U.S. response to an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria.
The White House said Pence would sit down Saturday with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who has yet to meet with Trump in an impasse over the wall Trump has pledged to build along the U.S.-Mexico border. Pence’s meeting with Peña Nieto will follow Trump’s calls to send National Guard troops to the border. That adds tensions as the neighbors, along with Canada, work to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In a series of meetings with Latin American leaders, Pence plans to promote good governance and democratic institutions and urge allies to maintain pressure on Maduro. The U.S. has sanctioned Maduro and dozens of top officials, accusing the country of human rights abuses.