President Trump condemned the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and said the U.S. would take further action should the government of Venezuela continue to impose authoritarian rule in the country.
“The socialist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro has inflicted terrible misery and suffering on the good people of that country,” Trump said Monday at a dinner in honor of Latin American leaders. “His corrupt regime destroyed a thriving nation by imposing a failed ideology that has produced poverty and despair everywhere it has been tried.”
“To make matters worse, Maduro has defied his own people, stealing power from their elected representatives to preserve his disastrous rule,” he added. “The Venezuelan people are starving, and their country is collapsing. It was one of the wealthiest countries in the world for a long period of time. And now the people are starving and the country is collapsing. Who would think that’s possible?”
Trump said Venezuela’s democratic institutions were being destroyed and as “friends of the Venezuelan people,” the U.S. should help the nation regain freedom and democracy.
Venezuela has experienced a food crisis for years, triggering political chaos.
