Pompeo to Meet With Venezuelan Leadership

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo excited and looking forward to a meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido at a conference in Bogota.

Guaido and Pompeo to Meet

“We hope he’ll be there… We hope he’ll join us and I look forward to having a meeting with him,” Pompeo told reporters on a flight from Berlin.

Juan Guaido defied a court-imposed travel ban in February, to travel to neighboring Colombia and organize a US-backed effort to transport aid cargo across the border. Guaido confirmed this Sunday that he had arrived in Colombia to speak with Colombian President Ivan Duque, although no comments were made regarding a meeting with Pompeo.

Duque, in a Twitter post, welcomed the Venezuelan opposition leader, saying that a private meeting in his residence on Sunday will be held with Monday’s conference to follow up, in which the use of drug-trafficking and illegal gold mining in order to fund “terrorist activities” will be addressed.

Guaido, on Twitter, acknowledged and thanked Duque for his support, saying that his trip would “generate the conditions that will lead us to freedom,” assuring the public that “my return to our country will be full of good news.”

Guaido has been recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate head-of-state since January last year by the US and 50 other nations after the Venezuelan invoked the constitution as head of congress and declared President Nicolas Maduro an usurper.

This month, the ruling Socialist Party in the country took control of the National Assembly, swearing in an allied politician, a defector from Guaido’s camp. Despite that, Guaido was voted in by the opposition for a second term as congress chief.

Pompeo congratulated the Venezuelan leader, condemning “the failed efforts of the former Maduro regime to negate the will of the democratically elected National Assembly,” although a year yet remains on Maduro’s position, who said he “does not care” about the US’s sanctions, accusing Guaido of being a coup-mongering puppet in control of the White House.