Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar spoke with Democracy Now host Amy Goodman and condemned U.S. actions in Venezuela. The coup attempt has sparked international attention after Juan Guaido attempted to seize power from President Nicolas Maduro. Guaido received the backing of many countries around the world including Canada and the United States.
"A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela. And we’ve sort of set the stage for where we’re arriving today." Omar said to Democracy Now. "This particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela, and it certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States."
In an interview with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the State Department, the intelligence community and American military are “very focused on protecting the Venezuelan people, restoring their dignity, growing their economy."
"We will hold accountable those who turn to violence or inflict violence upon the Venezuelan people. There will be a day for accountability for all those who engage in this," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells @WolfBlitzer live in "The Situation Room." https://t.co/19NDtL2h3Y
pic.twitter.com/l4MFVrRjPo— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) April 30, 2019
Al Jazeera reports Secretary Pompeo has named Elliot Abrams to the role of special envoy to Venezuela, a position that will have him leading all aspects of the American effort to replace President Maduro. Abrams has a controversial past with policy regarding Latin American countries, downplaying the 1981 massacre of nearly 1,000 men, women and children in a Salvadorian village by U.S.-trained military units.
Abrams, according to a Human Rights Watch Report, "artfully distorted several issues in order to discredit the public accounts of the massacre" in congressional hearings about the massacre.
Despite Abrams' history, Secretary Pompeo is giving him full reign.
"Elliott will have responsibility for all things related to our efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela," Pompeo said when announcing Abrams' hiring. "There are multiple dimensions to how we hope to assist the Venezuelans in achieving democracy there, and he will be responsible for leading that effort."
That history and subsequent role in forming current policy led Rep. Omar to strongly speak against U.S. actions and call for more citizens to see what is happening in Venezuela as affecting them.
"I could not pass up the opportunity to not only remind the American people that this was someone who had a heavy hand in some of the most devastating policies that we imposed on Central America," Omar said, "and that there is a direct correlation between the kind of mass migration that we’re noticing right now from Central America and South America to this country."
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