The White House called out Venezuelan officials, including the defense chief who Bolton claims had promised to back the opposition.
President Trump is watching political developments in Venezuela “minute by minute,” White House national security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday, as he put unusual public pressure on individual Venezuela government officials to renounce President Nicolás Maduro and embrace the political opposition.
Speaking as government loyalists clashed with opposition forces in the streets of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, Bolton told reporters that the fast-moving events Tuesday, which include defections of at least some military forces, is a “potentially dispositive moment in the efforts of the Venezuelan people to regain their freedom.”
“It’s a very delicate moment,” Bolton said. “The president wants to see a peaceful transfer of power,” which is possible if enough military and government figures switch allegiances, he said.
Bolton repeated that “all options” remain open to Trump but said nothing further about any potential use of U. S. military force. He warned Russia, which supports Maduro, not to interfere in the unfolding events, and repeatedly blamed Cuba for fomenting violence.
In an apparent attempt to divide Maduro’s government, Bolton said that senior officials, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, had been in secret talks with opposition leader Juan Guaidó, and called on them to “make good on their commitments” to help oust Maduro.
Earlier in the day, however, Padrino appeared on live television in Venezuela, surrounded by dozens of armed forces commanders and troops. Dressed in combat fatigues and body armor, and standing beneath a massive portrait of Maduro, Padrino described the number of military personnel who appeared with Guaidó as “a small group, minuscule, of military and police officials who decided to kidnap a few National Guard vehicles and some arms and ammunition.”
The United States was the first among about 50 countries to recognize legislative leader Guaidó as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela.
“This is clearly not a coup,” Bolton said, adding that Guaidó has the authority to direct the military.
Guaidó appeared in a video early Tuesday flanked by some military figures, leading to optimism within the Trump administration that it has bet correctly that the powerful Cuban-backed military would eventually turn against Maduro and policies that are bankrupting the once-rich country.
