AFP, Bogota :
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Monday for cooperation in the struggle to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from office amid a long-running crisis in the South American country.
The appeal came as Pompeo met with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido for strategy talks.
“We must put an end to Maduro’s tyranny which harms Venezuela’s citizens and has an impact on the entire region,” Pompeo said after meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque in Bogota.
Guaido, who arrived on Sunday in Bogota in defiance of a travel ban, plans to travel to Brussels for a meeting with the EU’s foreign policy chief on Wednesday and then on to Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum.
He was pictured walking alongside Pompeo and Duque at the opening of a regional anti-terrorism summit.
Pompeo, who arrived in Colombia on Monday morning at the start of a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, praised Duque for providing support for Venezuelans who “are rejecting authoritarianism and demanding freedom.”
Pompeo said he and Duque discussed “the enormous humanitarian crisis in Venezuela caused by the Maduro regime.”
More than 4.6 million people have fled Venezuela due to the economic and political crises, according to the United Nations, with those left behind facing shortages of food and medicines.
Power blackouts are frequent while salaries and savings have been made virtually worthless by the highest inflation in the world. Venezuela has been in recession for five years.
Duque said US support for those refugees was “important” but that more was needed from other countries “to fight the pernicious impact of Maduro’s rule and the humanitarian disaster.”
Pompeo praised the treatment of the 1.6 million Venezuelan refugees in Colombia, in “contrast to the misery inflicted by Maduro.”
In Caracas, Maduro dismissed the top US diplomat as a “fantasist” who depended on “psychological warfare, falsehood and lies.”
Socialist Party vice-president Diosdado Cabello said Guaido was “a lackey going to meet his masters in Colombia,” for what was likely to be a “monumental scolding”.
“One year and he hasn’t achieved anything he promised.”
· Stalled optimism –
The United States has been Guaido’s main backer in the 36-year-old’s bid to oust Maduro from power.
A year ago he declared himself acting president, a move quickly supported by Washington and more than 50 countries.
But he said he needs to “force the situation” including through “diplomatic pressure” in order to push Maduro out.
Following their meeting, Pompeo said the US would take “permanent actions … to continue to support President Guaido and the Venezuelan people.”
