US proposes election bout between Juan Guaido and Maduro regime loyalists

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s team has developed a plan for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power ahead of an election that would pit the remnants of the regime against top opposition lawmaker and interim president Juan Guaido.

“The United States will recognize the results of a free and fair election no matter which party wins,” Special Envoy Elliot Abrams, the State Department’s lead negotiator for the Venezuela crisis, told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “What we oppose is the abuse of state power that enables one party to rule indefinitely.”