Trump Warns Cuba on Venezuela
Administration officials say they are closely monitoring what is occurring in Caracas and hoping street protests lead to President Nicolas Maduro's ouster
U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening Cuba with "full and complete embargo" of the island and the "highest-level sanctions" if the communist government does not immediately cease military and other support for Venezuela. The tweeted demand comes as the White House anxiously watches what it acknowledges is a tipping point in Venezuela, hoping for a groundswell of support there by citizens and the military that would peacefully allow Juan Guaido to quickly take power from Nicolas Maduro. Minutes after Trump’s tweet, his secretary of state asserted that Maduro had been prepared to depart Venezuela on Tuesday morning but was talked out of it by the Russians. “He was headed for Havana,” Mike Pompeo said on CNN. Asked to say something directly to Maduro, Pompeo replied: “Fire up the plane.” Of the Cubans, Pompeo said, “It is unacceptable that they are protecting this thug.” Earlier in the day, National Security Adviser John Bolton acknowledged “a very serious situation” in the South American country and said Trump was monitoring it “minute by minute.” The Trump administration blames Cuban and Russian support for maintaining Maduro in power. In 2013, he succeeded the late Hugo Chavez, who had come to power in 1998 by winning an election following his unsuccessful coup attempt. "We expect the Russians not to interfere in Venezuela," Bolton told reporters Tuesday outside the White House West Wing. Bolton, further indicating the uncertainty of success for Guaido, who is backed by the United States and dozens of other countries, called for Venezuela's defense minister, its supreme court chief judge and the commander of the presidential guard "to act this afternoon or evening" and support the action to remove Maduro from power. At a State Department briefing, the agency's special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said it appears the three top-level Maduro officials are not going forward with what they had promised during internal Venezuelan negotiations. "If this effort fails, they will sink into a dictatorship from which there are very few possible alternatives," predicted Bolton. In response to a VOA question about what happens next if Guaido is not able to prevail Tuesday, Bolton replied it is possible the current situation could persist. "We don't see any indication that there's any substantial part of the military that's ready to fire on innocent civilians, their fellow countrymen," added Bolton. The national security adviser downplayed a televised scene of a military vehicle running over demonstrators who had been pelting the armored personnel carrier with stones. "It could be an isolated incident," he said. Bolton declined to say what kind of support the United States is currently providing on the ground besides humanitarian assistance. As he and the president have emphasized repeatedly for months, Bolton said all options remain on the table when asked about the possibility of U.S. military intervention. "I'm simply not going to be more specific to that," he added. What is happening in Venezuela is confusing, and the U.S. government is receiving conflicting information, according to Abrams. Administration officials say Guaido's attempt to take power should not be regarded as a coup attempt because the national assembly leader is already recognized as the head of state by Western governments. Besides Cuba and Russia, countries such as China and Turkey continue to regard Maduro as Venezuela's president. Steve Herman is VOA's White House Bureau Chief.