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Trump, Colombia's Duque Discuss Efforts to Oust Venezuela's Maduro

By Ken Bredemeier February 13, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart, Ivan Duque, met Wednesday in Washington, their talks focused on efforts to push Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro from power.

"We want to put an end to the brutal dictatorship in Venezuela," Duque told Trump at the outset of their discussions at the White House.

Trump said Venezuela was "in turmoil. People are being treated so badly. I'm not happy about it."

The U.S. leader said he was looking "at all options," but declined to disclose what they were, although the U.S. has not ruled out a military intervention.

Support for Guaido

The U.S. and several Western governments are supporting Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the rightful leader in Caracas. Trump called Guaido "very brave," adding, "I think it's going to work out" with Maduro's ouster.

Duque said, "We need to give [Guaido] even stronger support to lead Venezuela."

Trump said Maduro's refusal to let humanitarian aid, mostly supplied by the U.S., cross the Colombian border into Venezuela was "showing bad faith. There are people starving."

Duque said, "Obstruction of humanitarian aid is a crime against humanity."

Colombia has taken in the vast majority of the more than 2 million Venezuelans fleeing the chaos, poverty and political violence in their homeland. But the humanitarian aid has been blocked, with Maduro contending that to let it in would lead to a U.S. military invasion.

Guaido said "it's sure that the humanitarian aid will enter" on Feb. 23. "We have almost 300,000 Venezuelans who will die if the aid doesn't enter."

While Trump has refused to rule out a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said at the outset of a congressional hearing that lawmakers would not support it.

'Not an option'

"I do worry about the president's saber rattling, his hints that U.S. military intervention remains an option," Engel said. "I want to make clear to our witnesses and to anyone else watching: U.S. military intervention is not an option."

Engel said he appreciated the need for sanctions against the Venezuelan state oil company. But he warned that the White House "must think through the potential repercussions that these sanctions could have on the Venezuelan people if Maduro does not leave office in the coming weeks."

Elliott Abrams, the Trump administration's special representative for Venezuela, said U.S. sanctions against the South American nation's gold, financial and oil markets "has created enormous pressure on Maduro and his band of thieves. We've frozen bank accounts. We have revoked visas of those who benefit from their corruption and complicity."