One week after opposition attempts to stoke a military uprising in Venezuela failed, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence made another appeal on Tuesday. In contrast to his past speeches on Venezuela, including one recently in Doral, this time Pence used more carrot than stick.
Speaking in Washington, Pence said the Trump Administration is lifting sanctions against the former chief of Venezuela’s intelligence service, the Sebin. General Christopher Figuera had been on the U.S.’s blacklist as an enforcer for authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
But last week Figuera was one of the few top military bosses to abandon Maduro and recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president. (At the same time, Figuera freed Guaidó's political mentor, Leopoldo López, from house arrest. Maduro immediately fired Figuera as Sebin chief.) The U.S. and 53 other countries also recognize Guaidó.
Pence said taking Figuera off the blacklist shows “the good faith of the United States” in dealing with Venezuelan officials who join Guaidó. The U.S. hopes that will encourage others, especially Venezuela’s military brass, to do the same.
Turning the military is considered key to restoring democracy in Venezuela, which is suffering the world’s worst economic collapse today. But many military chiefs face corruption accusations – including drug trafficking.
At the same time, Pence announced new sanctions on Venezuela’s Supreme Court, which he called “a tool” of Maduro’s socialist regime - and which on Tuesday opened criminal investigations into six prominent opposition legislators in connection with last week's anti-government unrest.
UPDATE: Tuesday evening the Maduro regime charged seven opposition lawmakers with treason.
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