President Trump said Wednesday that he is willing to try “all options” in regard to bringing peace and stability to Venezuela, including a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“All options are on the table. Every one. The strong ones, and the less than strong ones. Every option — and you know what I mean by strong,” Trump told reporters Wednesday morning at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“I just want to see Venezuela straightened out. I want the people to be safe. We’re going to take care of Venezuela,” Trump said. “If he’s here, if he wants to meet … it was not on my mind, it was not on my plate but if I can help people that’s what I’m here for.”
JUST IN: President Trump at the UN on pressuring Venezuela and President Maduro:
“All options are on the table. Every one. The strong ones, and the less than strong ones. Every option — and you know what I mean by strong.” pic.twitter.com/FikCAqqViz
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 26, 2018
A potential meeting between the two heads of state would come a day after the Trump administration imposed sanctions against Maduro’s wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro; his vice president, Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez; the minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information, Jorge Jesus Rodriguez Gomez; and Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the new sanctions are necessary to combat those who help Maduro keep a strong “hold on the military and the government while the Venezuelan people suffer.”
At a speech before the United Nations, Trump publicly criticized socialist regimes, such as Maduro’s, for subjecting their people and keeping them in abject poverty.
“Virtually everywhere socialism or communism has been tried, it has produced suffering, corruption, and decay,” the president said. “Socialism’s thirst for power leads to expansion, incursion and oppression. All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery that it brings to everyone.”
The Trump administration has been tough on Venezuela, increasingly imposing sanctions against Maduro’s government since 2017. Over the first two years of Trump’s presidency, the administration has imposed sanctions on Maduro and dozens of Venezuelans for charges ranging from human rights abuses to corruption to drug trafficking.
Maduro criticized the Trump administration’s sanctions against his wife Tuesday evening, calling the president a coward.
“If you want to attack me, attack me, but do not mess with Cilia, do not mess with the family, do not be cowards,” Maduro said.
Under Maduro’s regime, the Venezuelan government has imprisoned politicians and political dissenters, limited the power and scope of the opposition party in the country and created a separate Congress with seemingly unending authority.
The nation’s economy is experience inflation running at roughly 200,000 percent. Food and medical supplies, which are scarce in the nation, were put under the control of the Venezuelan military.
The deteriorating situation in Venezuela has caused a mass migration out of the country into nearby Latin American nations, causing a migrant crisis along Venezuelan borders.
