Venezuela Latest: Guaido Hints at More Radical Steps as Aid Burns



Just hours after attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to Venezuela failed, the country’s opposition and U.S. allies suggested a more forceful multilateral move against Nicolas Maduro’s autocratic regime.
Juan Guaido, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, said that he’ll meet Monday with officials from countries in the region backing his push to topple Maduro and announce the next steps afterward. While he didn’t specify what those steps could be, he did say in a series of tweets that “all options” are being considered.
Shortly thereafter, Senator Marco Rubio, who’s helped spearhead the U.S. position on Venezuela, posted a tweet showing Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega under arrest in the U.S. in what was a not-so-subtle threat to take Maduro out militarily. Guaido will meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence before huddling with the Lima Group, a coalition of a dozen countries in the Americas committed to regime change in Venezuela, according to a person familiar with the matter.

After Saturday’s developments, “I’ve been forced to take a decision: formally propose to the international community that we should have all options open to achieve the liberation of this motherland which is fighting and will continue to fight,” Guaido said on his Twitter account. “Hope has been born to never die, Venezuela.”