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Also see: Venezuela; Juan Gaido;
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Undated: Nicolás Maduro Moros (/məˈdʊəroʊ/; Spanish: [nikoˈlas maˈduɾo ˈmoɾos];[2] born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician who served as the 46th President of Venezuela starting in 2013, eventually consolidating enough power to become the country's de facto dictator. He is currently not recognized as the legitimate president of Venezuela by over 50 countries and a number of international organisms including the OAE and the Lima Group.[3][4][5] Maduro previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013 and as Vice President of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013 under President Hugo Chávez.
On 11 August 2017, President Donald Trump said that he is “not going to rule out a military option” to confront the government of Nicolás Maduro.[170] On 23 January 2019, Maduro announced that Venezuela was breaking ties with the United States following President Trump's announcement of recognizing Juan Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, as the interim President of Venezuela.[171]
Maduro won the 2018 election with 67.8% of the vote. The result was denounced as fraudulent by most neighboring countries, including Argentina, Nieto's Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Canada and the United States,[176][177] as well as organizations such as the European Union,[178][179] and the Organization of American States, but recognized as legitimate by other neighboring countries such as Obrador's Mexico,[180] Bolivia,[181] Cuba,[182] Suriname,[183] Nicaragua[42] and some other ALBA countries,[184][185] along with South Africa,[186] China,[40] Russia,[41] North Korea,[187] and Turkey.[188]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s_Maduro
-- 2018 --
July 5: Maduro warns Venezuela army over Trump's 'invasion' plans
Behind-the-scene talks reveal how Trump intended to take advantage of Venezuela's crisis to invade the country.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/maduro-warns-venezuela-army-trump-invasion-plans-180705070527990.html
September 20: How Donald Trump could make Venezuela’s crisis dramatically worse
Venezuela’s economic and political crisis has its roots in the decline of global oil prices and the macroeconomic incompetence of Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly autocratic government. But as hyperinflation and poverty surge, refugees flee the country and Maduro cracks down on dissent, another risk is looming on the horizon: Donald Trump is hardening his stance on the crisis, and his pronouncements are starting to sound dangerous.
https://theconversation.com/how-donald-trump-could-make-venezuelas-crisis-dramatically-worse-103035
October 18: Trump sees opportunity in Venezuela's humanitarian crisis as midterms approach
Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis — which began in late 2014 when a drop in oil prices deprived the government of its primary income source — has worsened to previously unimaginable levels. People are now dying from shortages of food and medicine.
Noting that 2 million Venezuelan refugees have escaped “the anguish inflicted by the socialist Maduro regime,” Trump asked world leaders to join forces and “seek the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
Close analysis of Trump’s Venezuela policy shows that his administration is doing much less than it could to ease Venezuelans’ suffering. But that hasn’t stopped the president from using the country’s crisis for Republicans’ political gain ahead of November’s midterm elections.
To pressure Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to “restore democratic order,” the US in September imposed sanctions on his wife, the country’s defense minister and head of its Constituent Assembly, an all-powerful body created in 2017 to supersede the opposition-led legislature.
Despite Trump’s statements of sympathy for Venezuelan refugees, they are not exempt from his administration’s immigration crackdown.
Nearly 260 Venezuelans were deported from the US in the first half of 2018 alone, up from 248 deportations in 2017 and 182 in 2016.
And though Vice President Pence recognized that “violence and tyranny” rule the country, Venezuelans are routinely denied political asylum. Over the past five years, immigration judges have denied nearly 50 percent of all Venezuelan asylum applications.
Immigration attorneys in Miami say the US Consulate there has also been revoking tourist visas from Venezuelans, and the federal government has drastically reduced the number of non-immigrant visas issued to Venezuelans, from 239,772 in 2015 to 47,942 last year.
The White House’s failure to act on Venezuela has not stopped Trump from using its crisis for electoral gain in November’s midterm elections.
“The new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America’s economy after Venezuela,” Trump wrote in an Oct. 10 USA Today op-ed.
And at an event in Tennessee earlier this month, Trump insisted that Democrats “want to shut down American energy and replace freedom with socialism.”
They “want to turn America into Venezuela!” he yelled.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-10-18/trump-sees-opportunity-venezuelas-humanitarian-crisis-midterms-approach
-- 2019 --
January 23: President Donald Trump is officially recognizing Juan Guaidó, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as the interim leader of Venezuela Wednesday, where violent protests are underway.
Guaidó is the young leader of the National Assembly, an elected government body President Nicolás Maduro doesn’t recognize. Since assuming this position on Jan. 5, Guaidó has pushed for the military to abandon Maduro, promising amnesty for those who lay down their weapons.
Maduro was sworn into office for a second term earlier this month, but the opposition and much of the international community view the elections as a sham. Under Maduro’s leadership, the country has seen increasingly severe economic strife.
Maduro blames the country’s economic downfall on international sanctions, recently increased as a response to his grab for more power, but the much of the public wants new leadership. Thousands took to the streets Tuesday to oust him from office.
http://fortune.com/2019/01/23/trump-juan-guaido-venezuala-protests/
January 24: Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate
Venezuela’s descent into economic and political chaos in recent years is a cautionary tale of the dangerous influence that resource wealth can have on developing countries.
Since its discovery in the 1920s, oil has taken Venezuela on an exhilarating but dangerous boom-and-bust ride that offers lessons for other resource-rich states. Decades of poor governance have driven what was once one of Latin America’s most prosperous countries to economic and political ruin. If Venezuela is able to emerge from its tailspin, experts say that the government must establish mechanisms that will encourage a productive investment of the country’s vast oil revenues.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwPy0sJLM4AIVbh-tBh1C3ghXEAMYASAAEgJdrfD_BwE
February 12: Trump Is Tough on Venezuela -- but Won’t Let Fleeing Venezuelans Into the U.S.
Millions of Venezuelans have fled their country, but Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-refugee stance has closed America’s door to them.
https://prospect.org/article/trump-tough-on-venezuela-wont-let-fleeing-venezuelans-us
February 18: Trump Admin Weighs Shielding Venezuelan Migrants From Deportation
Team Trump moved to end ‘Temporary Protected Status’ for people from half a dozen countries. Now there’s debate about extending it to Venezuelans—and the pushback has begun.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admin-weighs-shielding-venezuelan-migrants-from-deportation
February 18: Trump blasts Maduro for not letting humanitarian aid into Venezuela
https://theweek.com/speedreads/824411/trump-blasts-maduro-not-letting-humanitarian-aid-into-venezuela
February 18: Trump Hits Venezuela with More Sanctions as US Military Planes Bring ‘Aid’
Three USAF planes landed 8km from the Venezuelan border, allegedly carrying “humanitarian aid.”
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14332
February 19: Trump warns military members supporting Venezuela's Maduro that they will 'lose everything'
President Donald Trump said Monday that "a new day is coming in Latin America," as he sought to rally support among the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S. for opposition leader Juan Guaido.
... Trump said the U.S. stands behind Guaido, whom the U.S. recognizes as the country's rightful president, and condemns President Nicolas Maduro's government and its socialist policies.
As the monthslong political crisis stretched on, Trump delivered a public plea to Venezuela's military to support Guaido's government. The Venezuelan military could play a decisive role in the stalemate but has largely remained loyal to Maduro.
Trump issued a dire warning to Venezuela's military that if they continue to stand with Maduro, "you will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything."
Trump added: "We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open."
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/18/trump-puts-pressure-on-venezuelas-nicolas-maduro-supports-guaido.html
February 19: Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro says Donald Trump sounds like a Nazi
https://nypost.com/2019/02/19/nicolas-maduro-says-donald-trump-sounds-almost-nazi-like/
February 19: Trump is exploiting the Venezuela crisis in order to win the 2020 presidential election
He’s using it as a way to label his Democratic challengers as socialists.
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/19/18231438/trump-venezuela-socialism-sanders
February 19: President Trump is making the right move by supporting Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's self-declared interim president, Latin America expert Lindsay Singleton said Tuesday on Hill.TV.
“He is doing the right thing — the administration is doing the right thing by recognizing the Guaidó interim government and trying to help the Venezuelan people,” Singleton told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.
Trump ramped up pressure on Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, during a speech in Miami, where he voiced support for Guaidó’s attempt to remove Maduro from power. Trump also warned about the perils of socialism and called for Maduro to end the humanitarian aid blockade.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/430581-latin-america-expert-on-trumps-response-to-venezuela-he-is-doing-the-right
February 19: The Venezuelans in Florida who 'love Donald Trump' and could help him in 2020
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-19/venezuelans-cubans-who-love-donald-trump-and-could-help-him/10823940
February 19: Donald Trump to Venezuela's military: 'accept amnesty or lose everything'
US President Donald Trump called on the Venezuelan armed forces to back interim President Juan Guaido. Trump said he sought a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela, but that "all options" [including milirary] remained open.
https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-to-venezuelas-military-accept-amnesty-or-lose-everything/a-47576117
February 19:
February 20: Trump declares 'socialism is dying' amid Venezuela 'catastrophe,' promises 'this will never happen to us'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-venezuela-socialism-dying-this-will-never-happen-to-us
February 20: Andrew McCabe claims Trump wanted war in Venezuela because “they have all that oil”
It’s a surprisingly overlooked passage of the former FBI acting director’s new book.
https://www.vox.com/world/2019/2/20/18233394/mccabe-trump-venezuela-war-oil-lawrence
February 20: Venezuelan Military Reject Trump’s Incitement to Rebel: ‘Over Our Dead Bodies’
The government also announced a rival peace concert and plans to supply food and medical attention to poor Colombians as the border heats up.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14340
February 20: Trump's New Red Scare
With reelection looming and his wall all but defeated, the president sees a convenient political target on the left.
There are a lot of people talking about socialism these days. Senator Bernie Sanders, who on Tuesday launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president, calls himself a democratic socialist, and so does Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Public intellectuals are debating the label anew. And then there’s the most high-profile participant in the discussion: Donald Trump.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/trump-socialism-venezuela-bernie-sanders-ocasio-cortez/583135/
February 21: Venezuelan troops have begun disobeying orders from Nicolas Maduro’s top officers and are unlikely to heed calls to crack down on a humanitarian-aid caravan scheduled to enter the country this weekend, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said.
“Saturday’s a day when we’re going to find a lot about the Maduro regime,” Rubio, who’s been helping set U.S. policy toward Venezuela, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “I have reason to believe that rank-and-file military are not going to violently suppress aid workers.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/maduro-s-soldiers-have-begun-disobeying-orders-rubio-says
-- 2020 --
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