US VP Pence urges further sanctions on Venezuela in meeting with opposition figures
US Vice President Mike Pence has called for more sanctions on Venezuela.
The call was made during a meeting in Peru with Washington-backed Venezuelan opposition figures ahead of a summit of Latin American leaders.
Pence said the US delegation that he was leading at the summit was "bringing a message for additional sanctions, additional isolation, and additional diplomatic pressure -- beginning in our hemisphere, but across the wider world -- to recognize that Venezuela is a dictatorship."
"We are with the people of Venezuela and will continue to do everything in our power to provide sustenance and support to those who have fled," Pence claimed, adding: "the US and our allies, I believe, are prepared to do much more."
The Venezuelan opposition leaders in the Lima meeting urged more US sanctions, and “intervention” in the Central American country in a bid to oust the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Washington has already put in place sanctions against Caracas and top Venezuelan government officials, as well as other measures to further weaken the country’s troubled economy and prevent the government and its state oil company from accessing international credit through US markets or entities.
Vice President Pence attended the Latin American summit instead of President Donald Trump, who stayed in Washington to monitor US military attack on Syria.
Pence also vowed that the Trump administration would keep up "economic and diplomatic pressure" on the government of President Maduro, who has repeatedly slammed Washington’s meddling. Maduro says the United States, in collusion with Venezuela’s opposition parties, are plotting to topple his government through economic and political pressures.
Washington has so far stopped short of imposing an embargo on Venezuelan oil imports -- a measure that would be crippling for Caracas, but also detrimental to US oil refiners, which remain heavily dependent on Venezuela’s heavy crude.
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