WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to take
"strong and swift economic actions" if Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro goes
ahead with plans to create a super-legislature known as a
Constituent Assembly in a July 30 vote.
"Yesterday,
the Venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom
and rule of law. Yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored
by a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator," Trump said in a
statement issued by the White House.
"The
United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime
imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong
and swift economic actions," Trump said.
Maduro's
foes are demanding a presidential election and want to stop the leftist
leader's plan to create the Constituent Assembly, which would have the power to
rewrite the constitution and annul the opposition-led legislature.
On Sunday,
98 percent of opposition supporters in an unofficial vote rejected the proposed
assembly.
Maduro
insists opposition leaders are U.S. pawns intent on sabotaging the economy and
bringing him down through violence as part of an international right-wing
conspiracy led by Washington and fanned by private domestic and foreign media.
Senior White
House officials told Reuters last month the Trump administration was
considering sanctions on Venezuela's vital energy sector, including state oil
company PDVSA, a major escalation in U.S. efforts to pressure the country's
government amid a crackdown on the opposition.
The idea of
striking at the core of Venezuela’s economy, which relies on oil for some 95
percent of export revenues, has been discussed at high levels of the
administration as part of a wide-ranging review of U.S. options.
The White
House officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the United
States could hit PDVSA as part of a “sectoral” sanctions package that would
take aim at the OPEC nation’s entire energy industry for the first time.
They made
clear the administration was moving cautiously, mindful that if such an
unprecedented step was taken, it could deepen the country’s economic and social
crisis, in which millions suffer food shortages and soaring inflation.
Another
complicating factor would be the potential impact on oil shipments to the
United States, for which Venezuela is the third largest oil supplier after
Canada and Saudi Arabia. It accounted for 8 percent of U.S. oil imports in
March, according to U.S. government figures.
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