President Trump is threatening to deport families of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro’s top bosses who are living in the United States to pressure the socialist leader’s military support, a senior administration official said.
Maduro’s allies have sent their wives and children to live abroad, from Miami to Madrid, in the midst of an economic and political crisis that threatens to extinguish the oil-rich country’s ruling Chavista regime. Those expatriates’ living arrangements represent a vulnerability, though, for military elites loyal to Maduro.
“If that’s what their bet is going to be, then frankly, what they impose on the Venezuelan people is what they and their families should live under,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday evening, on condition of anonymity. “And, yes, we can work ourselves and our allies and our friends in the region to make that happen.”
That threat is being aired publicly on the eve of a critical day in the Venezuela crisis. The United States, Brazil, and Venezuelan leader Juan Guaido hope to deliver food supplies to impoverished Venezuelans in defiance of Maduro’s orders. Vice President Mike Pence is traveling to Colombia on Monday to meet with a bloc of nations opposed to Maduro, a summit “focused on addressing the tragic humanitarian and security crises unfolding in Venezuela.” Special Envoy Elliott Abrams is also traveling from Florida to Colombia, attending the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“I truly hope that the Maduro regime is listening, that they’re going to allow the Venezuelan people to receive food,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Telemundo during a Friday interview. “It’s a desperate need, one that has now begun to be met by the world. And what happens if he doesn’t I think the Venezuelan people will ultimately decide.”
That decision will dictate the tenor of Pence’s trip to Colombia. The U.S. and regional allies hope to unveil a “major commitment” to Venezuela that builds on a successful delivery of the “178 metric tons of locally-procured food supplies,” mostly rice and beans, according to the State Department. But they are also planning punitive measures if the Maduro regime blocks the deliveries.
“Essentially the vice president is going with an open script,” the senior administration official said. “He has the carrot, but, he’s also ready with the sticks for those that promote or execute violence to ensure that we have proper measures, proper sanctions that will be announced not only by the United States but by the rest of the region’s democracies.”
The official didn’t specify the timeframe in which the United States and other allies would move to deport the families of Maduro loyalists. Trump’s team would prefer for the military leaders to leave the country and join their families abroad, if they are unwilling to endorse Juan Guaido as interim president. And if they refuse, then “we will work with our partners for that international financial circle to close and then for them to all have to live together in the misery that they’re imposing,” the official said.
