Guaido’s representatives reject dialogue with Maduro and call for imminent elections

Juan Guaido’s representatives in Washington are waging a public relations effort with lawmakers, the White House and diplomats around the world to gain traction for their goal of free and fair elections in Venezuela within weeks.

Carlos Vecchio, the newly recognized Venezuelan chargé d’affaires in Washington, met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart’s office, spoke in person with Vice President Mike Pence and appeared with foreign diplomats at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday. The message was the same at all three events: international pressure is a key ingredient in putting Venezuela on the path to democracy and talking with Nicolas Maduro is a waste of time.

“There are three types of pressure to be exerted now,” Vecchio said. “One is internal pressure, people out in the streets. Then we have pressure from the National Assembly, the only legitimate democratic institution in the country. The third is international pressure.”

Vecchio and Julio Borges, two Venezuelan opposition leaders in exile, were recently recognized as the legitimate representatives of Venezuela’s government in Washington last week shortly after Guaido took an oath to assume the presidency on an interim basis. They argued that dialogue between Maduro and the opposition, a tactic endorsed by Mexico, Uruguay, the Vatican and some liberals in Congress, does not put Venezuela on the path to free and fair elections.

Maduro “is trying to divide, confuse and manipulate the international community, it always plays the dialogue card,” Vecchio said. “We do not agree with dialogue for manipulative purposes, which we’ve seen in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018. The international community should not be manipulated and we should not participate in any of the dialogue that Maduro will participate in.”

President Donald Trump phoned Guaido for the first time on Wednesday ahead of widespread protests planned for Wednesday and Saturday. Trump called Guaido “to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and to reinforce President Trump’s strong support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Vecchio also met with Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday, where they discussed how the U.S. can support Guaido’s interim government. U.S. officials have said last year’s presidential election was illegitimate, meaning Guaido should be recognized as the duly elected leader of the country for 45 days until new elections can be held, according to their interpretation of Venezuela’s constitution.

After his meeting with Pence, Vecchio met with seven members of Congress from both parties, including South Florida Reps. Diaz-Balart, Donna Shalala and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

“I think it’s important for us to make clear that we’re all here together, united behind a free Venezuela,” Wasserman Schultz said. “It is critical that we continue to levy the sanctions that have been levied by the president with bipartisan support from both houses of Congress because tightening the cinch around the illegitimate, illegal Maduro presidency is absolutely essential to ensure that the military abandons him. The public has already abandoned him and we stand here today in support of the legitimate president, Guaido.”

Vecchio and Borges also met with a group of U.S. senators on Wednesday, including Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.

“The time for dialogue is over,” Scott said, noting that 40 people have died and at least 800 have been arrested during recent anti-Maduro protests.

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, director of National Intelligence Dan Coats called Venezuela a danger to U.S. interests. He said the government expects the attempts by Cuba, Russia, and China “to prop up the Maduro government’s security or financing will lead to additional efforts to exploit the situation and exchange for access, mostly to Venezuelan oil.”

On Wednesday, former Rep. Ed Royce, who led the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2013 until January, said Maduro has been working with the Chinese government and ZTE, a Chinese corporation with close ties to the government, to implement a “social credit system” in Venezuela. The electronic cards provided by ZTE give Venezuelans access to food, medicine, pensions and other services but allows Maduro tight control over resources in a country where millions lack basic nutrition.

“This presents a new challenge to democracy because in the system they know your political party,” Royce said.

He said the new pressure on Maduro by the international community should also extend to amassing humanitarian resources on the border that can be quickly distributed directly to Venezuelans without going through the military or other entities controlled by Maduro.

“Now is the time for the international community to insist, not deploying force directly but by bringing moral force by presenting on the border the food, the medicine, the NGOs that force the issue,” Royce said. “Governments left, right and center who support democracy should support a worldwide effort and it should be led by governments in Latin America.”

Miami Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell also introduced legislation on Tuesday that would authorize $150 million in humanitarian aid for Guaido’s government and require the Trump administration to submit a long-term plan to administer humanitarian aid.

“I support a quick restoration of Venezuela’s democracy, which means supporting interim President Juan Guaidó, and I strongly urge him to quickly hold free and fair elections,” Mucarsel-Powell said in a statement. “I believe providing increased humanitarian assistance – more than the $20 million that was announced by the Administration – directly to the Venezuelan people is imperative to their survival and will be a stabilizing force in the region and the hemisphere.”

The $20 million in assistance announced last week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was billed as a first step to help Guaido’s legitimacy hours after the U.S. recognized him as Venezuela’s legitimately elected leader. Other countries like Colombia, Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom also recognized Guaido, while China, Russia, Cuba and Nicaragua support Maduro.

Vecchio said he supports the Treasury Department’s announcement that it will ban transactions with most of Venezuela’s state-run oil sector, a major source of cash for the Maduro government. He said money-making institutions like oil company PDVSA and its U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, will be a “key element” in Venezuela’s economic future and that sanctions allow Guaido’s government to protect those assets for the future.

But the immediate need is to get humanitarian aid into the country while preparing for elections. David Smolansky, an opposition politician exiled in 2017, said 200 more Venezuelans will leave the country during the hour and a half they were speaking at the Atlantic Council. He estimated that more than 1.2 million Venezuelans could leave the country by the end of the year with the potential for 7 million total refugees, one quarter of Venezuela’s total population, to leave by the end of 2020 if the situation doesn’t improve.

The combination of Venezuela’s oil, military and help from the Cuban government has kept Maduro in power, Borges said, but the support of Latin America’s largest countries for Guaido’s government and imminent elections is the kickstarter for change.

“We still have Nicaragua and Cuba and Venezuela, who are playing the Cold War playbook,” Borges said. “It’s like some countries are playing basketball and others are playing soccer.”

McClatchy DC reporter Franco Ordonez contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 12:21 PM.