‘US won’t allow Venezuela crumble’

Proof of Maduro’s corruption: Ortega

DORAL, Fla, Aug 24, (Agencies): Vice President Mike Pence addressed a sympathetic crowd of Venezuelans in South Florida on Wednesday and pledged the US will use its economic and diplomatic power to push for free elections.

Pence spoke at a church in the city of Doral, the exile enclave, to a crowd of about 300. They occasionally shouted “freedom, freedom” and cheered every time the vice president spoke of President Donald Trump’s interest in Venezuela, a socialist nation that has been undergoing an economic crisis.

“Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States of America will continue to bring the full measure of American economic and diplomatic power to bear until democracy is restored in Venezuela,” Pence said,

Maduro

threatening there were more sanctions to come against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

As other countries in Latin America have improved their economies, Venezuela has gone downhill, Pence said, calling Maduro’s presidency, a “dictatorship.”

“We hear you, we stand with you. We will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles,” Pence said.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s fugitive former top prosecutor resurfaced in Brazil on Wednesday claiming to possess “a lot” of proof of Maduro’s corruption and warning that her life remains in danger.

Days after a dramatic escape from chaotic Venezuela, Luisa Ortega, 59, turned up the heat on Maduro, who has asked Interpol to issue a “red notice” warrant for the arrest of his critic.

Ortega — speaking at a crime-fighting conference in the Brazilian capital with representatives from the Latin American regional trading alliance Mercosur — said Maduro enriched himself in a massive corruption scheme uncovered at Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht.