Venezuela seeks Trump talks, but the U.S. quickly says no

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Venezuela's foreign minister on Wednesday called for direct talks between Presidents Nicolas Maduro and Donald Trump to address the country's crisis－a proposal swiftly rejected by the White House, which recognizes the opposition.

The call from Venezuela's top diplomat Jorge Arreaza came in an address to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

"We are proposing the path of dialogue, even with the United States... Why shouldn't they meet, President Trump and President Maduro?" Arreaza said.

The opening day of the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, February 25, 2019. /VCG Photo

The United States does not sit on the rights council following Trump's decision to quit the body last year.

But the American envoy to the UN's Conference on Disarmament (CoD) Robert Wood walked out of the chamber as another Venezuelan diplomat, Felix Plasencia, took the podium.

Several Latin American, European and other diplomats also joined Wood's walkout.

Vice President Mike Pence said the United States only recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido－whom he met earlier this week in Colombia in a show of support.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends the celebration of the International Peoples' Assembly in Caracas, February 26, 2019. /VCG Photo

"The only thing to discuss with Maduro at this point is the time and date for his departure," Pence tweeted.

"For democracy to return and for Venezuela to rebuild－Maduro must go," he wrote.

Wood, asked about the prospects of a Trump-Maduro summit, told reporters: "President Trump is prepared to meet with the rightful president of Venezuela, and that is Juan Guaido."

The U.S. has led a diplomatic campaign in support of opposition leader Guaido who has declared himself interim president and is recognized by about 50 countries, notably within the EU.

Arreaza denounced what he described as a campaign of "aggression" being perpetrated by the United States against Venezuela, including an international assault on the government's foreign assets.

He said Washington's actions were depriving ordinary Venezuelans of food and medicine and called on the rights council to "raise its voice" against the American "blockade."

Meanwhile, Maduro accused the U.S. government of trying to fabricate a crisis to start a war in South America in his first interview with ABC News' Tom Llamas in Spanish from the presidential palace in Caracas.

"Everything that the United States government has done has been doomed to failure," Maduro said. "They are trying to fabricate a crisis to justify political escalation and a military intervention in Venezuela to bring a war to South America."

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and Colombia's President Ivan Duque gesture after a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogota, Colombia, February 25, 2019. /VCG Photo

Maduro said that the meeting in Bogota was "part of that politics to attempt to establish a parallel government in Venezuela." He added that the U.S. "wants Venezuela's oil" and is "willing to go to war for that oil."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with Guaido as well as Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez in Bogota Monday before he addressed the Lima Group on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

"The path that got you here is the fractured path that Barack Obama left behind, President Trump. It's a path of a coup d'etat, of an intervention－that is not of the 21st century－I say to you, rectify. You will always have in me someone that is prepared－with our differences between us－to extend my hand and talk about a peaceful dialogue," he added.

Source(s): AFP