Trump calls on Venezuelan military to ditch Maduro
DONALD Trump has pleaded with Venezuela’s military to support opposition leader Juan Guaido and issued a dire warning if they continue to stand with president Nicolas aduro’s government.
“You will find no safe harbour, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything,” Mr Trump said in Miami before large US and Venezuelan flags.
The US president added: “We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open.”
The Venezuelan military could play a decisive role in the stalemate but has largely remained loyal to Mr Maduro.
In remarks broadcast on TV, Mr Maduro accused Mr Trump of speaking in an “almost Nazi style” and lashed out at his counterpart for thinking he can deliver orders to Venezuela’s military.
“Who is the commander of the armed forces, Donald Trump from Miami?” Mr Maduro said. “They think they’re the owners of the country.”
Mr Trump said “a new day is coming in Latin America,” as he sought to rally support among the largest Venezuelan community in the US for Mr Guaido.
The US recognises him as the country’s rightful president and condemns Mr Maduro’s government and its socialist policies.
As the months-long political crisis stretched on, the military has blocked the US from moving tons of aid airlifted in recent days to the Colombian border with Venezuela.
The aid shipments are meant to dramatise the hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine that are gripping Venezuela.
Mr Trump said of Mr Maduro: “He would rather see his people starve than give them aid.”
Critics say Mr Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent, making his second term illegal. The power struggle is headed to a potentially violent showdown on Saturday, when Mr Guaido will try to run caravans of US humanitarian aid across the Venezuelan border from Colombia.
Mr Maduro denies a humanitarian crisis exists, blaming the Trump administration for mounting a coup against him.
More than two million Venezuelans have fled the country in the last two years, most flooding across the border into Colombia, Brazil and Peru.
Meanwhile, California and 15 other US states have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund a wall on the Us-mexico border.