BOGOTA: The United States has pledged more humanitarian aid for Venezuela and announced more sanctions against President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
Vice President Mike Pence announced the measures at a meeting of the Lima Group of American countries in Bogota after the Venezuelan army blocked attempts to bring humanitarian aid into the country.
“[Our] efforts to date will not only continue, they will be increased. Despite Maduro’s brutality, we will press on,” Pence said.
“We are identifying new areas along the border where we can preposition additional aid for the Venezuelan people,” he said.
Washington will also provide an additional $56 million dollars “to support our partners in the region as they come to the aid of the Venezuelan people.” Pence added that the US will impose sanctions on additional regime officials, including three border-state governors who contributed to blocking aid supplies on the frontier.
On Monday Pence and Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido agreed on a strategy to tighten the noose around Maduro.
“We hope for a peaceful transition to democracy but President Trump has made it clear: all options are on the table,” said Pence, who passed on Trump’s “100 per cent” support to Guaido.
The Lima Group met in Bogota and said it would ask the International Criminal Court to declare “the violence of Maduro’s criminal regime against the civilian population and the negation of access to international aide as a crime against humanity.” Guaido warned that “indulging” Maduro “would be a threat to all of America,” while Colombia President Ivan Duque called for “more powerful and effective” pressure on the socialist leader.
However, the Lima Group rejected the use of force to achieve a democratic transition.
The US requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and imposed new sanctions on the governors of four Venezuelan states aligned with Maduro for impeding aid shipments.
Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself acting president in January after the opposition-controlled legislature concluded that Maduro was fraudulently re-elected.
Some 50 countries recognise him as Venezuela’s legitimate interim president. Despite the defection of more than 150 soldiers to Guaido’s side, Maduro’s military blockade at Venezuela’s borders held firm and prevented the aid from entering.
Maduro’s right-hand man Diosdado Cabello proclaimed “victory” on Sunday.
“Not a single one of those trucks with aid got through,” Cabello said at a rally in the border town of Tachira.
Humanitarian aid has become the focal point in Guaido’s challenge to Maduro’s authority.
Venezuela is suffering a humanitarian crisis marked by shortages of food and medicine — problems exacerbated by hyperinflation, which has rendered salaries and savings worthless.
Guaido says 300,000 people face death if aid supplies are not urgently brought in, but Maduro claims it is a smokescreen to cover a US invasion.
Guaido accused Maduro’s government of turning the country into “the sanctuary of terrorists.” “The reality in Venezuela is we have a regime that is against its people,” he said on Sunday.
“Today, we need to find a way to solve this crisis.” Having defied a government travel ban to got to Colombia on Friday, Guaido said he would return home “this week,” with the Lima Group warning he faced “serious and credible threats” from the regime.
At the opening of the Lima Group meeting, Colombia’s Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said the representatives were “trying hard to facilitate the opening of a humanitarian corridor.” Pence announced $56 million in funds for countries hosting Venezuelan migrants.
The United Nations says 2.7 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015. — AFP
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