The News
Venezuela said Western sanctions against it were a “desperate action” as President Nicolás Maduro tightened his grip on power.
US sanctions — which came a day after Maduro was inaugurated for a third term after winning a highly disputed election last year — include a $25 million reward for aiding in the arrest of the Venezuelan leader. Opposition leaders have vowed to fight on, albeit clandestinely due to the risk of arrest, El País reported.
Meanwhile an influential former president of Colombia, which borders Venezuela, called for his country to be used as a launchpad for a military intervention to “evict” Maduro, who remains in office largely on account of the army’s backing.
SIGNALS
Mounting pressure on Maduro may eventually show cracks
In a normally polarized region, most South and Central American leaders have rejected Maduro’s claim to power. And González as well as his ally María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s influential opposition leader, are “deeply popular” among Venezuelans. It is therefore “easy to overstate how strong Maduro really is,” Atlantic Council expert Geoff Ramsey wrote. The Maduro government is paranoid, El País said, and it appears some cracks have already formed: Maduro appointed Diosdado Cabello — a long-time rival — as his new interior minister Friday, a potential indicator of how few friends Maduro has left, Ramsey wrote. Isolated from its neighbors and down on supporters, Maduro has run Venezuela into a “dead-end” authoritarian regime, El País wrote.
US and Venezuela relations may be due to shift
The US and Venezuela are longtime political adversaries, with US President-elect Donald Trump taking a “maximum pressure” approach to the country during his first term, though this did little to stave off the migration of Venezuelans to the US. Despite the US’ most recent sanctions, a new Trump term may result in a policy change: Biden extended temporary protected status for around 600,000 Venezuelan nationals in the US on Friday on account of Maduro’s inauguration. However, with the Venezuelan president likely to use control of illegal immigration as a bargaining chip for the lifting of the US oil embargo, one Latin America expert told AFP that she predicted Trump will take a ”softer stance on Venezuela because of the immigration issue.″