Caracas: Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country after Washington called on to the world to “pick a side” in the South American nation’s fast-moving crisis.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro broke relations with the United States Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president, a move that Maduro called a coup attempt.
Maduro gave US diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn’t obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela’s legitimate president. That set the stage for a showdown at the hilltop US Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.
But as the sun set on Venezuela’s capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro’s government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with US officials about setting up a “US interests office” in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States.
The US and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.
The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government’s account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.
“That is true diplomacy,” Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.
Earlier in the day, critics and supporters of Maduro’s government faced off at the UN Security Council, reflecting the world’s deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country.
During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela’s “nightmare” and support Guaido.
“Now is the time for every other national to pick a side,” Pompeo said. “No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem.”
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying “to engineer a coup” against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesn’t threaten international peace and security, and he accused “extremist opponents” of Maduro’s government of choosing “maximum confrontation,” including the artificial creation of a parallel government.
Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.
Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, “I am not going to speculate or hypothesise on what the U.S. will do next.”
Pompeo was accompanied to New York by Elliott Abrams, who was named a day earlier as the U.S. special representative for Venezuela. Abrams is a former assistant secretary of state for Latin America who worked at the White House when a 2002 coup in Venezuela briefly ousted Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.
On his first day on the job, Abrams met with exiled leaders of Venezuela’s opposition. He also spoke by phone with Guaido, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress. Abrams reaffirmed U.S. support for Guaido as interim president, said Kimberly Breier, the current assistant secretary of state for the region.
The Security Council, the UN most powerful body, has not taken action on the Venezuelan crisis because of the divisions. The Security Council’s five veto-holding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.
The leaders of two of those council nations — France and Britain — joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro, saying Saturday that they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido as president unless Venezuela calls a new presidential election within eight days.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there is no announcement of a new election in the next days, the 28-nation bloc “will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country’s leadership.” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline.
“Europe is giving us eight days?” he asked the council. “Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It’s almost childlike.” Arreaza asked that someone show him where in Venezuela’s constitution it says an individual can proclaim himself president.
Guaido says he is acting in accordance with two articles of the constitution that give the National Assembly president the right to hold power temporarily and call new elections.
While the council debated, a man identifying himself as Venezuela’s military attache in Washington posted a video saying he had broken with Maduro and now would report to Guaido.
AP
