Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Trump considers military intervention in Venezuela an ‘option’ as crisis escalates

1123515
1123515
minus
plus


WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said that sending the military to Venezuela was “an option” and that he had turned down President Nicolas Maduro’s request for a meeting.


“Certainly, it’s something that’s on the — it’s an option,” Trump said in an interview with CBS to be broadcast on Sunday. Trump said Maduro requested a meeting months ago and he turned down the Venezuela leader.


“I’ve turned it down because we’re very far along in the process,” he said in excerpts from a CBS “Face the Nation” interview. “So, I think the process is playing out — very, very big tremendous protests.”


Tens of thousands of people have thronged the streets to protest the Maduro government, wearing the yellow, red and blue of the Venezuelan flag. Venezuelan opposition leader and National Assembly head Juan Guaido, 35, had called Saturday’s protest to ramp up the pressure on Maduro to step down, ten days after stunning the world by declaring himself “interim president” of the oil-rich but crisis-wracked country.


He received a boost before it began when an air force general became the highest ranking officer to abandon Maduro and recognize Guaido as the country’s true leader.


US National Security Adviser John Bolton responded to that in a tweet calling on “all military members to follow General (Francisco) Yanez’s lead.” The United States recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president on January 23 while four major European nations — Britain, France, Germany and Spain — have said they will do likewise unless Maduro calls presidential elections by midnight on Sunday.




‘LET’S HAVE ELECTIONS’


Speaking at a pro-regime demonstration marking 20 years since his predecessor Hugo Chavez came to power, Maduro ignored those demands and instead reiterated his call to bring forward legislative elections slated for the end of 2020 to this year.


“They (the opposition) want to bring forward elections, let’s have elections,” he said.


Maduro, making his first public appearance since a military parade in August when he claimed to have been targeted in an attempted assassination, accused Guaido of being a US “puppet” in a coup d’etat attempt.


The National Assembly is the only one of Venezuela’s five government branches controlled by the opposition.


Guaido had earlier urged the armed forces to allow humanitarian aid from abroad into the country.


“You, soldier… have the decision in your hands” to allow it in or not, said Guaido. The United States said it will transport aid to the country in response to a request by Guaido.


Under Maduro’s stewardship, Venezuela has lurched into an economic crisis that has left the country suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.


Maduro refuses to let aid into Venezuela, claiming it would precede a US-led military intervention.




‘DECISIVE’


Guaido called for a new demonstration on February 12.


Speaking at the European Union’s headquarters in the east of the capital, he said this month “should be decisive.” The rival Caracas rallies, separated by 10 kilometres, attracted huge crowds.


Carlos Morales, a 62-year-old who voted for Chavez in 1998 but now says socialism only brings “misery,” attended a pro-Guaido rally


with his wife.


“This is the leader that all Venezuelans hoped for, a new leader, young, who is not contaminated,” he added. At the pro-Maduro demonstration, Virginia Rondon, 69, hummed songs that glorified Chavez, and reminisced about his socialist revolution, saying: “I never experienced anything more beautiful in all my years.” Others denounced the spectre of US intervention and called on the United Nations to halt “Trump’s war.” Early on Saturday, General Yanez said in a social media video that he disavowed Maduro’s “dictatorial” authority and recognized Guaido as the acting president.


— Reuters/AFP



SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon