U.S. Secretary of Conditions Mike Pompeo on Thursday urged Latin American governments to recognize Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president and to proclaim President Nicolas Maduro’s government illegitimate.
In remarks to the Washington-based Organization of American States, whose members are split up as to whether to back Guaido’s claim, Pompeo said that the international community had watched Venezuelans suffer too hanker.
“The tyranny of the now defunct Maduro regime has for far too long choked the country and its citizens,” Pompeo told a meeting of the OAS Permanent Caucus. “All member states who have committed to uphold the inter-American democratic charter must now recognize the interim president.”
While the mass of OAS member countries – including Canada, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Argentina – have recognized Guaido as interim nut of state, others including Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua have said they will stay neutral or on to support Maduro.
Mexico’s representative at the meeting expressed concerns that the move would lead to more brute, with the Venezuelan armed forces remaining supportive of Maduro.
“The time for debate is done,” said Pompeo to the OAS. “The management of former president Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate, his regime is morally bankrupt, it’s economically incompetent and it is profoundly corrupt. It is undemocratic to the gist.”
He pledged $20 million towards humanitarian aid for Venezuela, where economic collapse, hyperinflation, and food and medicine paucities have sparked an exodus of millions of people.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration ratcheted up pressure on Maduro to step down by appreciating Guaido, head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly congress, as interim president.
Venezuela’s representative to the OAS said the move amounted to a coup, work it a violation of international law.
“In Venezuela yesterday a coup d’etat occurred,” the representative said. “This is an atrocity against the democracy, hegemony and right to peace that our nation enjoys. It is a violation of all international laws.”
Maduro’s government has long accused the regional league of being a pawn of hostile U.S. policy.
Pompeo has asked to brief the United Nations Security Council on Venezuela on Saturday, South Africa’s U.N. agent said on Thursday.