‘Maximum pressure March:’ Trump to brief Brazilian president on new plans to oust Maduro
The ongoing crisis in Venezuela will top the agenda when President Donald Trump meets with Brazilian President Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago, senior administration officials said on Saturday.
The two men are scheduled to have dinner at the president’s private Palm Beach property on Saturday night, before Bolsonaro’s visit to Miami on Monday.
It is Trump’s thirteenth meeting with a leader from the Western Hemisphere in a year and a half. The two are also expected to discuss trade, energy infrastructure, and forest conservation in the Amazon.
Briefing reporters on their meeting, one official described the coming month as “maximum pressure March,” as the administration prepares to roll out a series of policies intended to pressure Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro out of power.
Administration officials have said that they are roughly halfway through their list of options to squeeze the Maduro regime. But Trump has directed his team to speed up the process, one official said.
“In the days and weeks to come, there’s going to continue to be escalation toward our policy of maximum pressure,” the official said. “We have a lot of plans. There’s a lot of coordination taking place.”
Maduro’s grip on power in Venezuela has led nearly 5 million people — 16% of its population — to flee the country, creating the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis and the largest ever in the Western Hemisphere.
The Trump administration has gradually escalated sanctions on Maduro over time. But Cuba and Russia have provided lifelines to the regime in Caracas, providing Maduro with staying power.
The administration applied sanctions last month on Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, for circumventing U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector. But an administration official told McClatchy last month to expect “bigger” action in the coming weeks.
Bolsonaro’s aides will continue on to Washington after their meetings in Miami on Monday, for more talks on trade and Venezuela policy with their American counterparts.
The United States is among 60 nations that recognizes Juan Guaidó, the leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as interim president of the state.
