Washington: The United States on Thursday warned Venezuela’s leftist regime of consequences if opposition leader Juan Guaido is not allowed to return safely from a visit to Washington.
“We hope that the regime makes the calculation, particularly after this trip, that the support for Guaido is strong and that the counter-reaction to any move against him would make it a mistake for the regime,” said Elliott Abrams, the US pointman on Venezuela.
“We’re very concerned about it and we hope that he will return safely,” he told reporters.
Asked to spell out what the United States would do, Abrams said only: “We are prepared.”
Guaido, who is considered interim president by the United States and most other Western and Latin American nations, paid a surprise visit as a guest Tuesday at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress.
Guaido later met at the White House with Trump, with the United States according him the same treatment that it would to any head of state.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government harshly criticized both Trump and Guaido but in the past has allowed the opposition leader to move freely despite his US-backed efforts to topple the regime.
Guaido, speaking to reporters outside the State Department after meeting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday, did not answer when asked whether he would return.
