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 Twitter posts that "all options" are being considered.
Shortly thereafter, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted a photo on Twitter showing Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega under arrest in the U.S. in a not-so-subtle threat to take Maduro out militarily. Guaido will meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence before speaking 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 Twitter. "Hope has been born to never die, Venezuela."
Guaido is walking a delicate line. While saber-rattling could unnerve some in the top ranks of Maduro's military and speed up defections, threats of foreign military intervention, especially involving the U.S., would likely strengthen Maduro's standing among his shrinking base at home. He has already characterized the aid deliveries as little more than a pretense by the U.S. and others to invade Venezuela.
To repel the efforts to bring food and medicine into Venezuela, Maduro closed the country's borders with Brazil, Colombia and Curacao while positioning military and pro-government armed militias near the crossing points and in border towns to push back and intimidate opposition supporters and aid volunteers.
With Maduro insisting that Guaido is using humanitarian aid as an excuse for intervention, the opposition maintains that it is only part of efforts to relieve a malnourished and suffering population in the throes of Venezuela's worst-ever economic collapse.
Saturday brought violent action but little motion. Maduro avoided a bloodbath despite a border face-off between protesters and soldiers. His army didn't desert him. While Guaido failed to start the flow of relief, he demonstrated vividly that the regime would attack its own citizens and spurn food even as people starve.
At least four have died in chaotic clashes and about 60 members of the armed forces defected along the borders of Colombia and Brazil, where food and medicine is stockpiled. But Saturday ended much as it began: Trucks of humanitarian aid donated by nations backing Guaido's bid for power idled just outside the country and Maduro resumed taunting his rivals, crowing about victory back in Caracas.
"I am stronger than ever," Maduro said in an expletive-laden speech that whipped die-hard supporters into a frenzy. "Standing, ruling our homeland, for now, and for many years."
Guaido must now regroup with his allies and having sneaked into Colombia hours before the attempted push across the border, faces the additional challenge of returning as Maduro threatens to imprison him for violating a travel ban.
"We saw today a man who doesn't care about Venezuela, ordering to burn food for the hungry and medicine in front of the sick," Guaido said. Maduro "has chosen the worst of paths, the path of crime and extermination, he said."
"Venezuela's military has a choice: Embrace democracy, protect civilians, and allow in humanitarian aid; or face even more sanctions and isolation," White House national security adviser John Bolton wrote on Twitter.
Saturday's clashes on the Colombian border injured 285 people, mainly harmed by tear gas and "non-conventional arms," according to Carlos Trujillo, Colombia's foreign affairs minister. Thirty-seven were hospitalized.
����
(Patricia Laya, Jonathan Levin, Alex Vasquez, Fabiola Zerpa, Daniel Cancel and Alyza Sebenius contributed to this report.)
