"Maybe I could think about it. (…) Maduro would like us to meet. And I never object to meetings. ” In his particular style, Donald Trump issued Friday in an interview with the American site Axios the hypothesis of a meeting with the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. This, even as the US administration put a price on the Venezuelan president's head for $ 15 million for drug trafficking, just a few weeks ago, and has been steadily increasing its sanctions package for many months.
This meeting has been desired for many months by Nicolas Maduro. But after Washington displayed its support for Juan Guaido as interim president at the end of January 2019, followed by around fifty countries including France, the bridges seemed to be broken between Washington and Caracas. Juan Guaido had even been invited to Washington, received at the White House and attended the State of the Union speech last February. A healthy support so far for the main opponent to Nicolas Maduro who seemed to protect him from an arrest, he who is being sued by the justice of his country for attempted coup.
A reversal of strategy
This interview with Axios seems to herald a total reversal of strategy. Especially since during the exchange, the President of the United States expressed doubts about the qualities of Juan Guaido. A real blow for the anti-Swiss opposition. Persecuted by power, imprisoned, forced into exile or underground, even killed by the political police, the Sebin, marginalized by judicial decisions of a Supreme Court in the pay of the Chavist government, the opponents could only hang on to one thing: the unfailing support of the White House. For the moment, there has been no official reaction from the Maduro government or those around Guaido. If the latter could feel protected from direct repressive actions on the part of Nicolas Maduro, "this protection has just disappeared", according to a close relative of the interim president, disappointed.
Trump on Guaido: "A weak man unlike Maduro"Especially since the Maduro government has planned to organize legislative elections in December which will deprive Juan Guaido of his status as President of the National Assembly, the parties supporting him having announced their refusal to participate in this poll. But this release could change the situation and there is no doubt that representatives of the Venezuelan opposition will rush to Washington to obtain the support of the United States and try to replace Juan Guaido in the diplomatic game of the American president.
»READ ALSO - Venezuela: Juan Guaido on the road to marginalization
According to extracts from the chapter devoted to Venezuela in the shocking book by John Bolton, Donald Trump never appreciated Juan Guaido, "a weak man unlike Maduro", according to the words of the president reported by his former adviser to national security.
This new positioning of Donald Trump surprises a few months before the presidential election. In fact, in the key state of Florida, the Latin electorate, which includes many Cubans and Venezuelans, is standing against the Venezuelan government which has come very close in recent years to the Castro regime, to the point that the Cuban army would now play an essential role in the country's armed forces.
Donald Trump tried on Monday to correct the tweet a bit by writing that he was ready to meet Maduro "only to discuss a peaceful exit from power . " Not sure that his words are likely to reassure the Venezuelan opposition.