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In a speech in April, while he was still head of White House policy for Latin America, Mr. Cruz sent a message to the Venezuelan army. Referring to Maduro as "mad," Cruz said that all Venezuelans should "urge the military to respect the oath they have taken to carry out their duties. Honor your oath.
As the crisis in Venezuela worsened in recent years, US officials have debated the pros and cons of open lines of dialogue with rebel factions in the military.
"There were differences of opinion," said Aponte, a former Latin American diplomat for Obama. "There were people who believed very much that they could bring stability, help distribute food, work on practical things."
But others – including Mrs. Aponte – have seen a considerable risk in building bridges with the leaders of an army that, according to Washington's assessment, has become a pillar of the cocaine trade and human rights abuses. the man.
Roberta Jacobson, a former ambassador to Mexico who preceded Ms. Aponte as head of the State Department for Latin America, said Washington has long regarded the Venezuelan army as "largely corrupt, deeply involved in drug trafficking and very unsavory ". has seen fit to establish a return channel with some of them.
"Given the deterioration of Venezuelan institutions, there was a feeling that even if it was not necessarily the solution, a democratic solution should have involved the army," said Ms. Jacobson, who said retired from the state. Department this year. "The idea of hearing actors from these places, no matter how reluctant, is an integral part of diplomacy."
But for whatever reason, holding talks with the putschists could trigger alarms in a region with a list of infamous interventions: the failed Central Intelligence Agency's Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro in 1961; the United States-backed coup in Chile in 1973, which led to the long military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet; and the Reagan administration's secret support for right-wing rebels known as contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
