US VP Pence warns Venezuela as sanctions under consideration
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US Vice President Mike Pence was talking tough on Venezuela Friday as expectations mounted that the Trump administration would soon announce new economic sanctions targeting the nation's socialist government.
Pence sent a tweet repeating a pledge made during a four-nation tour of Latin America this month that the US "will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles." He added that "The birthright of the Venezuelan people has always been and will always be libertad," he wrote, using the Spanish word for "freedom."
Pence visited Venezuelan exiles in Miami this week to express solidarity with their effort to protect the country's democracy from President Nicolas Maduro's increasingly authoritarian rule. Last month the Trump administration promised to take strong economic actions if Maduro went ahead with plans to create a constitutional assembly comprised of government loyalists. Since the assembly has been seated, the 545 delegates have voted by acclamation to oust the nation's outspoken chief prosecutor, take power from the opposition-controlled congress and create a "truth commission" that many fear will be used to target opponents. Several prominent opposition mayors have also been removed or ordered arrested by the pro-government supreme court.
