Maduro Urges The U.S. To ‘Abandon Its Plan For a Violent Regime Change In Venezuela’

Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro urged the U.S. to “abandon its plan for a violent regime change in Venezuela and all of Latin America and the Caribbean” as the Trump administration continues with its deployment of forces off the country’s coast.

“The U.S. must respect the sovereignty, right to peace and independence of our countries,” Maduro added during a political rally. He went on to say that should the country be attacked, it would “move to a stage of armed fight.”

Venezuela, Maduro claimed, is currently in the “phase of non-armed fight, which is political, communicational, institutional.”

In this context, U.S. President Donald Trump has been presented with several options for military strikes against the Venezuelan regime, including striking inside the country, according to a new report.

CNN detailed that Tuesday’s strike against a vessel that left the country was the beginning of a much larger effort against cartels in the region.

Trump was directly asked if the he would like to see regime change in Venezuela. “We’re not talking about that,” he responded. However, he did say “we are talking about the fact that (Venezuela) had an election, which was a very strange election, to put it mildly.”

He was making reference to the contested election in which authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory without presenting supporting evidence. The opposition, in contrast, showed its own tallying proclaiming Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the victor by a large majority.

Others in the U.S., however, are directly telling Maduro to relinquish power. One of them was Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, who told him “you have to make a call: leave Venezuela alive or dead.”

Speaking to La Voz, Moreno also claimed Maduro has been using cocaine: “Drug traffickers don’t have to use the substances they sell. Maduro is using a lot of cocaine rather than selling it. He’s a crazy man. I never sent him a message but I do it now,” the senator said before making the threat.

“There cannot be peace in Colombia and South America if this crazy man doesn’t leave. The Venezuelan people are worse off because he’s there. They are leaving the country, it’s a mess.”