The Trump administration said Tuesday it was prepared to lift crippling sanctions on Venezuela within a year if Cuban and Russian military forces leave the South American nation and embattled socialist President Nicholas Maduro steps aside to allow new elections to be held.
In a departure from past threats to drive Mr. Maduro from power, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the new policy Tuesday for democratic transition to a new government, one like to have a prominent role for U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Mr. Pompeo said the U.S. will continue to recognize Mr. Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader, but will ask him and Mr. Maduro step aside to allow Venezuela’s fractured National Assembly to create a special “Council of State” to govern until elections can be held within six to 12 months.
The formation of the council would trigger a suspension of U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil sector, a key revenue lifeline for the Caracas government that Washington and its allies accuse of human rights abuses, drug trafficking and corruption.
“If the [rest of the] conditions of the framework are met, including the departure of foreign security forces and elections [are] deemed free and fair by international observers, then all remaining U.S. sanctions would be lifted,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters at the State Department Tuesday.
The blueprint unveiled in Washington got a quick thumbs-down from Caracas, whose top diplomat called the plan “extortion.”
“The Bolivarian government reiterates that Venezuela does not accept, nor will it ever accept any tutelage, from any foreign government,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza wrote on Twitter hours after Mr. Pompeo’s announcement.
Still, the plan marked a slight softening of the American position, signaling the U.S. would be willing to waive sanctions on many Mr. Maduro’s political associates. Key parts of the plans seem designed to peel off top figures of the regime who to date have stuck by the president.
A policy fact sheet circulated by the department did not specify whether Mr. Maduro, who was named last week in a U.S. Justice Department narcoterrorism indictment, will be allowed to run in the proposed election, although Mr. Pompeo suggested the U.S. wants him gone.
“We all — Juan Guaido and his entire team — understand that Nicolas Maduro must go,” the secretary of state said. “We must get this democracy started. We have now introduced this pathway to achieve that.”
He also asserted that Washington would “absolutely” support a Guaido candidacy. “I think he’s the most popular politician in Venezuela,” Mr. Pompeo said.
The proposal tracks reform that Mr. Guaido, who has struggled to maintain the momentum of his protest movement, had already put forward in recent days.
The Trump administration’s quick embrace of the strategy suggests growing concern over the coronavirus, which threatens to overwhelm Venezuela’s already collapsed health system and economy.
Mr. Maduro has so far successfully resisted an intense Trump administration campaign to drive him from power or to entice Venezuela’s powerful military to abandon the president.
The United States and some 60 other nations say Mr. Guaido is Venezuela’s rightful leader, but the U.S. sent a wave of unease through the region last May when then-National Security Advisor John R. Bolton said U.S. military forces were “ready to go” into Venezuela at a moment’s notice after Mr. Guaido called for a popular uprising.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, applauded the administration for “expeditiously moving to accelerate a political transition” at a moment of crisis caused by COVID-19, saying the new proposal “provides a path for moving forward … for the Venezuelan people who have suffered at the hands of Nicolas Maduro.”
The State Department fact sheet said the Venezuelan military’s “high command” would “[remain] in place for the duration of the transitional government,” while the opposition-controlled National Assembly, currently headed by Mr. Guaido, would appoint four members to the proposed “Council of State.”
A two-thirds majority vote would be required to approve the four, in order to draw buy-in from members of Mr. Maduro’s ruling socialist party in the National Assembly. A fifth council member, who would serve as interim president until elections are held, would be named by the other council members. Neither Mr. Maduro nor Mr. Guaido could serve on the council.
Regional analysts, however, say such a power-sharing arrangement is likely to be rejected by Mr. Maduro.
David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, told The Associated Press such an arrangement is unlikely to win Mr. Maduro’s support unless the thorny issue of his own future is addressed and he is guaranteed protection from the U.S. justice system.
⦁ This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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