Trump officials alarmed by Maduro campaign to undercut Guaidó in Venezuela election
Trump administration officials have grown concerned with an effort by embattled Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro to undermine opposition leader Juan Guaidó in the upcoming National Assembly elections.
Two U.S. officials told McClatchy on Friday that Maduro’s pressure campaign, referred to by Venezuelan opposition leaders as “Operation Scorpion,” has caught the attention of top officials on the White House National Security Council.
One official said the administration is exploring what tools it could use to punish those leading the campaign as part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to pressure the Maduro regime from power.
Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires for Venezuela James Story at a State Department media briefing said that Maduro’s efforts amount to a “laser-focused attempt” to “undermine the last democratic institution in the country.”
“The regime is using a combination of threats, arrests, and bribes — up to $500,000 per vote, we have been told — to stop the re-election of Juan Guaidó. Threaten, exile, detain, bribe. That is step one,” Abrams said.
Asked what evidence the United States has collected on Maduro’s efforts, Abrams said that National Assembly members had provided firsthand accounts of attempted bribery.
“Step two will be to try to grab control of the National Assembly by preventing free elections in 2020. The Venezuelan constitution calls for National Assembly elections next year and opinion polls make it obvious that the opposition will win them if they’re free,” Abrams said. “The Maduro regime appears intent on stopping them and closing off that peaceful path.”
The Trump administration has been attempting to pressure Maduro out of power for over a year. The Venezuelan ruler has presided over an unprecedented economic crisis, but has remained in power with the support of Russia and Cuba.
The United States and more than 50 countries recognize Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela, based on a constitutional provision detailing his role.
Maduro’s effort to delegitimize the National Assembly poses a direct challenge to the U.S. strategy. If Guaidó loses his legislative perch, it puts his role as the country’s leader into doubt.
“The symbol, the personification of the struggle of the return to democracy is Juan Guaidó,” Abrams said in response to a question about what the Trump administration would do if Operation Scorpion were to succeed.
“I think, at least as of right now, he has the votes to get re-elected,” Abrams continued. “And I guess I shouldn’t engage in a hypothetical of if he isn’t.”
Earlier this month, Guaidó’s Voluntad Popular party said that some opposition lawmakers were being offered up to $1 million to deny him their vote. And on Wednesday, the party expelled Deputy José Gregorio Noriega Figueroa from its ranks, saying he couldn’t explain his sudden wealth.
“Representative Noriega has betrayed the Venezuelan people, particularly his family and the voters from the state of Sucre, by giving into Operation Scorpion,” the party said in a statement.
The January vote is seen as a crucial test for Guaidó, whose popularity has been waning as his year-long quest to unseat Maduro has faltered.
Removing Guaidó “would only play into the hands of the [Maduro] dictatorship,” Yon Goicoechea, the director of the Voluntad Popular party, said earlier this month, “because it would be very complicated for the [50] nations who recognize the legitimate government [of Guaidó] to recognize another politician. Guaidó has done more damage to the dictatorship during the last few months than any other politician in the previous years.”
By most accounts, Guaidó’s reelection is secure. The nation’s four largest opposition parties, known as the G4, have said they will back him during next month’s vote. But there are fears that Maduro’s heavy-handed tactics could move the needle.
After two opposition lawmakers had their parliamentary immunity stripped last week – often a precursor to being detained – influential lawmaker Henry Ramos Allup, with the Acción Democrática party, said the move was a clear attempt to undermine support for Guaidó.
“They might as well have put thugs at the door and thrown us all in jail,” he told El Nacional newspaper.
The National Assembly, which has been controlled by the opposition since 2015, is seen as the last bastion of democracy in Venezuela, and Maduro has said he wants to regain control of it.
“I reiterate my call to the Venezuelan people and all political parties to prepare themselves,” Maduro wrote on Twitter this week, “because sooner rather than later we’ll have legislative elections.”
The implosion of the Venezuelan state has led to the largest refugee crisis in Western Hemispheric history, and is slated to surpass the Syrian refugee crisis in 2020, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The foreign minister for Colombia, which has absorbed between 1.7 million to 2 million refugees since the crisis began, met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday to discuss the situation.
Colombia’s ambassador, Francisco Santos Calderón, told a small group of reporters on Wednesday that the region is closely monitoring Maduro’s vote-buying efforts out of fear it could undermine Guaidó’s reelection.
“We don’t even want to think about that scenario,” Santos said.
Pompeo also hosted a meeting last week to “evaluate” the state of the U.S. policy, the Colombian ambassador said, declining to provide details. But Santos said that, while the Trump administration had provided generous amounts of aid, “we need more.”
Story said that the U.S. administration has committed $654 million to support Venezuelans thus far.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the State Department “has lead for our actions” on Venezuela policy.
“We are fully supportive of what they want to do,” Esper said. “We always are prepared and plan to provide humanitarian assistance, or whatnot. But this is an issue I talked [about] with Secretary Pompeo and we are prepared to support them as they think through next steps.”
The Defense Department has not received any requests to expand its humanitarian mission addressing the Venezuelan refugee crisis since it deployed the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship, to the region, Esper said.
Tara Copp contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Trump officials alarmed by Maduro campaign to undercut Guaidó in Venezuela election."
