<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654720050089,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654720050089,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54705454", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1028420"} }); ","_id":"00000181-44ef-d405-a3e7-d5ef44ae0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden has spoken with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on the telephone, despite being among the officials missing from the Summit of the Americas.
“President Biden expressed his support for Venezuelan-led negotiations as the best path toward a peaceful restoration of democratic institutions, free and fair elections, and respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Venezuelans,” the White House readout stated.
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“They discussed the role the United States and other international partners can play to support a negotiated solution to Venezuela’s crisis,” the readout added. “President Biden reaffirmed the United States is willing to calibrate sanctions policy as informed by the outcomes of negotiations that empower the Venezuelan people to determine the future of their country.”
The United States continues to recognize Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, en route to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas conference.
Sullivan denied Guaido was omitted from the guest list due to demands from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is also not in attendance in protest of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua’s exclusion.
In Guaido’s stead, Sullivan contended the U.S. had invited Venezuelan civil society activists. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and senior administration officials earlier elaborated that representatives of Guaido’s interim government would be welcomed at three stakeholder forums but not at the main event.
Sullivan was additionally pushed for an update on talks between the U.S. and Venezuela to address the oil and gas supply shortage.
“We’re prepared to take steps if they take steps, but it has to be action for action,” he said. “The first critical step would be to come to some set of agreements with the opposition that showed good faith, that showed progress, and that gets meaningful traction going in a political dialogue.”
Sullivan, too, was needled on why Biden was not holding a press conference at the summit’s conclusion, particularly given his capacity as host.
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“I think it’d be hard to argue that he hasn’t taken many, many questions from the press,” he said. “By the end of this, you can be pretty confident that he will be putting on full display America’s raucous democracy in all of its wonderful and attractive forms.”
