US will help Americans flee Venezuela

Embassy staff expected to be out by end of the week

WASHINGTON – Americans in Venezuela should “strongly consider” leaving the country, the State Department said this week, and the agency is trying to arrange travel for U.S. citizens who want to flee the increasingly dangerous conditions in Caracas, the capital.

“We’re pursuing all possible options to secure travel options,” said Robert Palladino, the State Department’s deputy spokesman.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the United States would withdraw all of its remaining U.S. Embassy staff from Venezuela by the end of this week. Pompeo said conditions in Caracas threatened the safety of American diplomats. The country has suffered massive power outages, exacerbating an economic collapse and rampant food shortages.

“This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in Venezuela, as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy,” Pompeo said in a statement near midnight Tuesday.

The last part of Pompeo’s statement – that diplomatic presence in Venezuela represented a “constraint on U.S. policy” – has fueled fresh speculation of U.S. military intervention, a step President Donald Trump has said is an option.

At a briefing Tuesday afternoon, Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, did not say how U.S. policy was hampered by having embassy staff in Caracas. Asked if that was a hint of American military action, Abrams said: “Nothing has changed. We continue to say, because it is true, all options are on the table.”

Abrams would not disclose the number of American diplomats stationed in Venezuela. He dismissed questions about whether the withdrawal signaled that the Trump administration’s efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro from power was losing momentum.