U.S. Vows More ‘Action’ to Back Guaido in Venezuela

Date: 21 January 2020 - 22:31

News ID: ۷۵۳۵۹

BOGOTA (Dispatches) -- There will be more action by the United States to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday, after meeting with Guaido on the sidelines of a regional conference in Bogota.
The South American country, which is suffering an economic collapse and hyperinflation under American sanctions, is a failed state, Pompeo claimed.
Guaido, recognized Venezuela’s president by the U.S. and its allies without any election, defied a court order to travel to Colombia.
"I would fully expect there will be further action that the United States would take to continue to support President Guaido and the Venezuelan people,” Pompeo told journalists.
"We do not talk about particular sanctions but everyone can fully expect that the United States is not done,” Pompeo added, without specifying what action Washington will take.
Pompeo declined to address whether the United States is prepared to sanction Russia over its backing of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido will next travel to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum. He would not confirm whether he will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Davos.
Guaido said that "on this tour we will be on over the next few days-- I’ll reveal details as we go along -- we will have important meetings in Europe, in the European Union and specifically in Davos.”
The U.S. hopes the trip will help gain global attention for Guaido. There is little chance Guaido’s tour will break Venezuela’s deadlock, however, as the military continues to stand by the ruling Socialist Party and Maduro has shown himself to be resilient to U.S. sanctions.
"It’s utterly irrelevant for us that a lackey has gone to meet his masters in Colombia,” said ruling Socialist Party Vice President Diosdado Cabello in a Caracas press conference, referring to Guaido. "He hasn’t achieved anything he promised.”
Maduro has branded Guaido as a U.S. puppet and said the United States wants to invade Venezuela.
In his comments, Pompeo also applauded Colombia and other Latin American countries’ for their recent designations of Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
Washington has imposed several rounds of sanctions against the oil-rich country to oust Maduro, in a move which has worsened Venezuela’s economic crisis.