WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump is mulling whether to recognize the president of Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly as the de facto leader of Venezuela instead of President Nicolas Maduro, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
A senior administration official told McClatchy that the United States sees the National Assembly, headed by Juan Guaido, as the only legitimate democratic entity in Venezuela, and that Maduro's recent re-election to a second term was fraudulent.
"The United States is currently considering all diplomatic, political and economic tools in its arsenal in response to the usurpation of power by the illegitimate Maduro regime," Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said. Marquis cited national security adviser John Bolton's recent comments that the U.S. holds Maduro "responsible for the safety of all Venezuelans who cry out demanding to freely choose their leaders."
The administration initially did not plan to take major steps after Maduro's inauguration last week, not wanting to give Maduro more attention, but ended up scrambling over the weekend to come up with a response following the outcry by international groups, Venezuelan emigres in Miami and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has spoken repeatedly to Trump about the matter.
"Under the Venezuelan constitution, in absence of a president, the leader of the National Assembly assumes the presidency until there's a new election. Recognizing Juan Guaido is the next logical step," said Rubio, who is seen as one of the president's principal advisers on Western Hemisphere issues. "The Trump administration has once again made it clear it stands with the people of Venezuela as they fight to restore freedom and democracy."
Officials from the White House, National Security Council and State Department worked throughout the weekend, debating the appropriate response, which included recognizing Guaido, or issuing controversial sanctions on the Venezuelan oil or what to do if Maduro leaves.
"There was a real kind of 'OK, we dropped the ball here, by not taking this date seriously, but we need to catch up quickly and figure out what we can do,'" said a person involved in the discussions.
William Brownfield, who served as ambassador to Venezuela when iconic socialist leader Hugo Chavez came to power, and led the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs under Trump, said he sees both a legal and political argument for the United States to recognize Guaido (or whoever is the National Assembly leader at the time) as the interim president.
"If at the end of careful assessment and review, I hear from the secretary of state transmitting the views of the president of the United States that we wish to recognize this particular individual as the president of the government of another country, I will find a way to find diplomatic precedent, legal interpretation, and as required statements of the United States code and if I have to, the United States Constitution, that will indicate this is what we can do and when we will do it," Brownfield said during a talk about Venezuela at Washington-based think tank, Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Fernando Cutz, who served as director for South America and acting senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council in the Trump administration, said there has long been concern about who would take leadership of the country if Maduro left. But he said now they have a plan and, for the first time, it has the needed international support.
"We're all recognizing this (the National Assembly) as the only legitimate democratic body in the country," Cutz said. "And the constitution says that if the president is unavailable and the vice president unavailable then essentially their speaker of the House becomes president."
Maduro was sworn in last week for a second six-year term, but the international community has largely questioned his legitimacy following what it sees as a fraudulent election.
More than 21 former presidents and heads of government of Latin America and Spain said they recognized Guaido as "the president in charge of Venezuela."
Guaido was briefly arrested Sunday, two days after declaring that he was prepared to take over temporarily as the country's leader.
