AP, United Nations :
President Donald Trump urged world leaders Tuesday to help restore “democracy and political freedoms” in Venezuela, singling out the South American country for some of his most blistering criticism in a speech to the United Nations.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hit back by calling the US president “the new Hitler” of international politics.
Trump threatened to build upon sweeping economic sanctions that the US slapped on Venezuela last month if Maduro “persists on a path to impose authoritarian rule.”
But he did not repeat an earlier threat to consider military options to pressure Venezuela, a day after dining with the leaders of four Latin American countries who made clear they would
not support such action. “The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing. Their democratic institutions are being destroyed. This situation is completely unacceptable and we cannot stand by and watch,” Trump said. “I ask every country represented here today to be prepared to do more to address this very real crisis.”
Maduro, who did not attend the UN General Assembly gathering, reacted angrily from Caracas, calling the speech an “aggression from the new Hitler of international politics, Mr Donald Trump, against the people of Venezuela.”
President Donald Trump urged world leaders Tuesday to help restore “democracy and political freedoms” in Venezuela, singling out the South American country for some of his most blistering criticism in a speech to the United Nations.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hit back by calling the US president “the new Hitler” of international politics.
Trump threatened to build upon sweeping economic sanctions that the US slapped on Venezuela last month if Maduro “persists on a path to impose authoritarian rule.”
But he did not repeat an earlier threat to consider military options to pressure Venezuela, a day after dining with the leaders of four Latin American countries who made clear they would
not support such action. “The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing. Their democratic institutions are being destroyed. This situation is completely unacceptable and we cannot stand by and watch,” Trump said. “I ask every country represented here today to be prepared to do more to address this very real crisis.”
Maduro, who did not attend the UN General Assembly gathering, reacted angrily from Caracas, calling the speech an “aggression from the new Hitler of international politics, Mr Donald Trump, against the people of Venezuela.”
