There could be dozens of opposition figures clamoring to lead Venezuela if embattled strongman Nicolás Maduro steps down.
Tension is building in the opposition bloc, weeks after a failed call for a military uprising that has left top lawmaker Juan Guaidó, whom President Trump recognized as interim president in January, publicly embarrassed in an apparent stalemate with Maduro.
“Our conundrum, which is to keep the opposition united, has proven devilishly difficult,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged during a meeting with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York City.
The Maduro regime attempted to begin negotiations to end the impasse and leave the regime intact after the failed uprising, but Guaidó scrapped that effort under pressure from his own associates.
“The moment Maduro leaves, everybody’s going to raise their hands and [say], ‘Take me, I’m the next president of Venezuela,’” Pompeo said, according to audio of the event obtained by the Washington Post. “It would be forty-plus people who believe they’re the rightful heir to Maduro.”
That assumes Maduro will be ousted, despite widespread perceptions that the opposition’s momentum stalled after the attempted uprising of April 30. It is consistent with the message that Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton have been delivering to lawmakers who favor a relentless effort to force Maduro to leave office.
“They all believe that the sanctions, everything, including what the Trump [administration] did yesterday with regard to stopping the travel to Cuba is ratcheting up the pressure both on Cuba and Venezuela,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “The pressure will continue to have an impact.”
The U.S. renewed regulations that restrict travel by Americans to Cuba, which is Maduro’s primary international patron. U.S. officials believe that Cuba has sent roughly 20,000 members of Cuban security services to keep the Maduro regime in place.
“This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday. “These actions will help to keep U.S. dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services.”
That’s just one part of a larger effort to drive a wedge between the two authoritarian governments. “I think we’ve got to find a way to disconnect them from Venezuela,” Pompeo said of the Cuban authorities at the event last week. “We’re working our tail off to try and deliver that.”
