Donald Trump urges Venezuelan military to abandon Nicolas Maduro or "lose everything"

US President Donald Trump on Monday warned members of the Venezuelan army remained loyal to Socialist President Nicolas Maduro that they were risking their future and their lives, and urged them to allow humanitarian aid in the country. country.

Addressing an enthusiastic crowd composed mainly of Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants in Miami, Trump said that if the Venezuelan army continued to support Maduro, "you will not find any safe harbor, no easy way out and no way out, you will lose everything. "

Maduro replied Monday night that Trump's speech was "to the Nazi" and baderted that he acted as if he were the owner of Venezuela and that his citizens were his slaves.

Trump has offered strong support to Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, whom the United States, many of Venezuela's neighbors, and most Western countries have recognized as Venezuela's interim president.

But Maduro, who won a second term last year in a sham election by critics, retains support from Russia and China and control of Venezuelan state institutions, including security services.

Trump warned the Venezuelan armed forces not to harm Guaido or other opposition politicians, invited them to accept the offer of amnesty from the leader of the Assembly and asked them to authorize the payment of food, medicine and other supplies.

Guaido, who invoked constitutional provisions to declare himself head of the country last month, said the aid would enter Venezuela from neighboring countries by land and sea on Saturday.

The United States sent tons of stored aid to the Colombian-Venezuelan border, but Maduro refused to let it enter.

Maduro calls this aid a show orchestrated by the United States and denies any crisis despite the limited access of many Venezuelans to food and medicine.

"We will not make the Venezuelan Venezuela a beggar," he said Monday in television commentaries. "We will not accept it."

Maduro said Venezuela was already receiving "humanitarian aid" on a daily basis. Russia, for example, on Wednesday sent 300 tons of aid to the country by air, he said, although that clarifies the fact that it was not a matter of money. a donation, but of supplies for which Venezuela had paid.

GREAT ATTACK ON SOCIALISM

"We are seeking a peaceful transition of power but all options are open," said Trump. This is a further sign of Trump's repeated insistence that military options remain on the table, although most experts in Latin America believe such measures are unlikely.

The United States has had direct communications with members of the Venezuelan army urging them to abandon Maduro, a senior white house official told Reuters this month, and Trump officials have openly predicted an increase in defections.

But until now, few military officers have turned against Maduro.

A source close to the opposition in Washington expressed doubts that the Trump administration had worked enough on the ground to stir up further mutiny in the ranks, where many officers are suspected of benefiting from corruption and corruption. drug traffic.

Guaido, in a videotaped message to the crowd at Florida International University, called the "decisive moment" to pressure Maduro from within and from outside the country.

Trump also used his speech to argue against socialism as a "dying" ideology in the Western Hemisphere and to call Maduro a "puppet" of communist-dominated Cuba.

Although the Republican president did not directly equate socialism with the Democratic Party, as he seemed to do in his State of the Union speech this month, he alluded to his previous criticisms of domestic policies proposed by some liberal Democrats.

"America will never be a socialist country," he said.

Trump wants to strengthen the support of Hispanic voters in Florida in view of his re-election campaign in 2020, while Florida should again become a major pivotal state.