Trump Threatens Maduro if he proceeds with a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Constitution
HAVANA TIMES – Donald Trump warned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro today that the United States will take “strong and swift” economic action if he continues with plans to elect a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution, reported dpa.
The warnings of the Trump administration feed right into Maduro’s ongoing argument that the imperialist government of Washington wants to meddle in the internal affairs of Venezuela, justification for his repressive policies against any internal opposition to its government.
“Yesterday the Venezuelan people made it clear that they stand for democracy, freedom and the rule of law,” Trump said in a statement a day after the popular consultation organized by the Venezuelan opposition.
Trump said the Venezuelan people are still ignored by “a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.”
“The United States will not stand still watching Venezuela crumble,” he said. “If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic action,” Trump added.
The statement came after his spokesman, Sean Spicer, had already called on Maduro a few hours earlier to cancel the constituent assembly process.
The consultation on Sunday, which the opposition said involved more than seven million Venezuelans, is an “unequivocal message” to the Government of Maduro, said the spokesman.
Maduro should cancel the process for drafting a new constitution and hold “free and fair elections,” Spencer added, in a demand also contained in the Trump statement.
The spokesman also condemned the “violence inflicted by government thugs against innocent voters and government efforts to erode democracy” in the country.
In similar terms, the US State Department also issued a statement on Monday afternoon condemning the death of another person in Venezuela and encouraged the international community to call on Maduro to suspend the Constituent Assembly process.
The government of Nicolas Maduro is the leading political and economic ally of the Cuban government of Raul Castro.
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