Russia and Cuban military forces won’t fight to preserve Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.
That was the message Wednesday from Ambassdor Gustavo Tarre, an envoy from Maduro’s archrival, Juan Guaidó, the top opposition lawmaker whom President Trump and other Western democratic leaders have recognized as the interim president of Venezuela.
“There is no ally ready to risk the money or the troops enough to maintain Maduro in power,” Ambassador Gustavo Tarre said Wednesday at the Organization of the American States in Washington, D.C.
Tarre stressed that point one day after Guaidó unsuccessfully called for a military uprising to overthrow Maduro. Guaidó blamed Russia and Cuba for the failure but argued that they don’t have sufficient motivation to stabilize the regime in the face of an economic crisis and food shortages.
“It’s a kind of puppet of a geopolitical game, in the case of some countries, and it’s a means of subsistence for the Cuban dictatorship,” Tarre said, citing Cuba’s dependence on Venezuelan oil. “But the prospects for the future of Nicolás Maduro and those supporting him in Venezuela are very, very narrow indeed.”
The ambassador’s move to downplay Russian and Cuban commitment to Maduro comes as President Trump’s national security team huddled to discuss possible responses to the regime’s crackdown on Guaidó’s supporters.
“We have done exhaustive planning, so there is not a situation or scenario that we don’t have a contingency for,” acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told lawmakers earlier Wednesday.
Tarre asked the OAS, which is a dedicated forum for governments of the Western Hemisphere, to help protect Guaidó from being taken by Maduro.
“President Guaidó is still in the streets, there will possibly be arrest warrants issued for him,” he said through an OAS translator. “He is ready to run any risk. And, in this sense, we ask the countries present here for support.”
U.S. officials have warned repeatedly that President Trump would retaliate in some fashion over any harm done to Guaidó. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also suggested that Trump is willing to order a military intervention “if that’s what it takes” to oust Maduro. “The president has been crystal clear and incredibly consistent — military action is possible — if that’s what’s required — that’s what the United States will do,” he told Fox Business on Wednesday morning.
Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov traded allegations about the Venezuela crisis in a phone call Wednesday, after the top U.S. diplomat told media outlets that Maduro was on the cusp of leaving the country Tuesday before Russian officials convinced him to remain in Caracas.
“Washington’s intervention in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state and threats against its administration are the rudest violation of international law,” Lavrov’s team said after the conversation. “It was noted that the continuation of aggressive steps will have the most drastic consequences.”
Pompeo delivered his own rebuke of Russian support for Maduro, who has overseen a political and economic collapse that has resulted in millions of Venezuelans fleeing the country amid a food shortage and widespread electrical blackouts. “The Secretary stressed that the intervention by Russia and Cuba is destabilizing for Venezuela and for the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship,” the State Department said in a summary of the call.
Tarre urged regional counterparts not to accept any attempt by Maduro to begin negotiations that would allow him to run again for president. “To negotiate an election without involving the departure of Maduro is a joke,” he said, recalling past cases of election fraud. “So, we are going to continue our struggle.”
