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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14486">https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14486</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Guaido Requests US Military
‘Cooperation’ to Oust Maduro as US Vessel Violates Venezuelan
Waters</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Paul Dobson - May 13,
2019<br>
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<p>Merida, May 13, 2019 (<a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/">venezuelanalysis.com</a>)
– Self-declared “Interim President” Juan Guaido has
ordered the setting up of a meeting with the US Armed
Forces to discuss “cooperation” in his efforts to oust
President Nicolas Maduro.</p>
<p>During a gathering of supporters in the upper middle
class Caracas district of Las Mercedes on Saturday,
Guaido informed that he was instructing his
representative in the United States, Carlos Vecchio,
to establish a “direct relationship” with the <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Southern_Command">US
Southern Command</a> (SouthCom), which <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13042">plans,
oversees, and controls</a> all US overt and covert
military operations in Latin America and the
Caribbean.</p>
<p>The initiative by Guaido stokes increasing fears that
he looks to oust Maduro using a foreign-led
intervention. Italian newspaper <a
href="https://www.lastampa.it/2019/05/10/esteri/juan-guaid-ora-vorrei-parlare-con-conte-per-spiegargli-il-nostro-dramma-fDwgEeKXdxcw2q8bnBt0SJ/premium.html">La
Stampa</a> published an interview with Guaido
Friday, in which the opposition leader explained that
“If the North Americans proposed a military
intervention, I would probably accept it.”</p>
<p>In a letter to US SouthCom chief Admiral Craig Faller
Monday, Vecchio requested a meeting to discuss
“strategic and operational” cooperation, alongside
concerns over what he describes as “the [existing]
presence of un-invited foreign forces” in Venezuela.
No evidence for this claim was provided by Vecchio.</p>
<div>
<blockquote data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Venezuela</a>:
following instructions of Interim President <a
href="https://twitter.com/jguaido?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jguaido</a>,
we officially requested the <a
href="https://twitter.com/Southcom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Southcom</a>
a meeting with a technical delegation to advance
in strategic and operational planning with the
priority goal of stopping our people's suffering
and restoring democracy. <a
href="https://t.co/x3ckEn39cM">pic.twitter.com/x3ckEn39cM</a></p>
<p>— CARLOS VECCHIO (@carlosvecchio) <a
href="https://twitter.com/carlosvecchio/status/1127911954474049537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May
13, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p>Venezuelan authorities were quick to respond to the
opposition’s move, with Vice President Delcy Rodriguez
qualifying it as “repulsive” and “doomed to fail.”
Recent <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/01/29/venezuelans-oppose-intervention-us-sanctions-poll/">polls</a>
suggest that over 86 percent of Venezuelans oppose a
foreign-led military incursion into the country.</p>
<p>While SouthCom are yet to confirm if they will meet
Guaido’s team, Faller had earlier tweeted that he
looked forward to discussing how to “restore [the]
constitutional order” in Venezuela and that his forces
stood “ready.”</p>
<p>Guaido and US officials have repeatedly stated that <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14295">all
options</a>, including a military intervention, are
“on the table.” However, other countries that have
voiced support for Guaido have publicly rejected the
possibility of intervention, including <a
href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/13/c_137973729.htm">Chile</a>,
<a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Peru-President-Rejects-Military-Intervention-in-Venezuela-20190206-0016.html">Peru</a>,
<a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-colombia/military-intervention-not-an-answer-for-venezuela-colombia-president-tells-paper-idUSKCN1QW19T">Colombia</a>,
<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/05/08/world/americas/ap-lt-venezuela-the-latest.html?searchResultPosition=4">Spain</a>
and <a
href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-canada-says-it-opposes-military-intervention-in-venezuela-as-lima/">Canada</a>.</p>
<p>The overtures to the US SouthCom come on the heels of
a <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14453">failed
military putsch on April 30</a> and numerous
unheeded calls by Guaido for the Venezuelan <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14266">armed
forces</a> to support him.</p>
<p>After <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14244">swearing
himself in as “interim president” on January 23</a>,
the National Assembly president received the backing
of<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14303">
roughly 25 percent of the world’s governments</a>.
His unsuccessful efforts to remove the Maduro
government, which included a <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14347">humanitarian
aid</a> “showdown” on the Colombian-Venezuelan
border, have seen his <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14458">support
dwindle</a> in numbers.</p>
<h3>More sanctions from Washington</h3>
<p>Guaido’s call for cooperation with the US military
came as Washington unveiled a new set of sanctions
against Venezuela on Friday.</p>
<p>The latest<a
href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20190510.aspx">
measures</a> added two private oil shipping firms,
Monsoon Navigation Corporation and Serenity Maritime
Limited based in the Marshall Islands and Liberia
respectively, to the US Treasury Department’s Office
of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklist. Two
Panamanian oil tankers associated with these firms,
the Leon Dias Chemical and Ocean Elegance, were also
named.</p>
<p>According to the Treasury Department, the firms and
tankers have delivered crude oil from Venezuela to
Cuba since late 2018. Venezuela delivers around <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-oil-exports/venezuelan-pdvsas-oil-exports-steady-in-april-flow-to-cuba-continues-data-idUKKCN1S82BN">50,000</a>
barrels per day of crude to Cuba as part of wide
ranging cooperation agreements which include the
presence of roughly 20,000 Cuban medical and
agricultural technicians in Venezuela.</p>
<p>The sanctions follow<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14423">
similar measures announced in April</a>, while the
Venezuelan economy has recently seen restrictions
imposed on its <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14398">banking</a>
and <a href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14396">mining</a>
sectors, as well as a<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14268"> de
facto oil embargo</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, Guaido also called on those European
countries which recognise him as the “legitimate”
president to “amplify” economic sanctions against
Caracas this weekend, as well as urging assistance in
international courts to oust Maduro.</p>
<p>Sanctions have repeatedly been declared<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13614">
illegal</a> by independent multilateral agencies.
Recent<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14474">
comments</a> from the UN Special Rapporteur Idriss
Jazairy argued that the sanctions also violate<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14283">
human rights</a>, while an April report from the
Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy
Research (CEPR) indicated that US economic sanctions
have directly caused over <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14453">40,000
deaths</a> in Venezuela since 2017.</p>
<p>Apart from calling for more sanctions, Guaido also
urged European governments to grant “maximum
legitimacy” to his appointed representatives. European
governments largely continue to have complete or
partial diplomatic relations with the ambassadors
named by the Maduro administration.</p>
<p>Efforts by Guaido’s representative in the US, Carlos
Vecchio, to<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14443">
take over the vacated embassy building in Washington</a>
also continue to be frustrated by a group of US
solidarity movements who have been occupying the
building, with the permission of the Venezuelan
government, since April 12.</p>
<h3>US coast guard vessel penetrates Venezuelan waters</h3>
<p>Amidst discussions of military “cooperation,”
tensions remained high following the incursion of an
armed US Coast Guard patrol vessel into Venezuelan
waters on Thursday.</p>
<p>Action was taken by the Venezuelan Navy and Air Force
when the USCG James approached a distance of 13
nautical miles (15 miles) off Venezuela’s northern
coast. The vessel changed course away from Venezuela’s
coastline following a radio request to do so.</p>
<p>According to US Southern Command spokesperson Colonel
Amanda Azubuike, the vessel was carrying out “a
mission to intercept drugs.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know if other Republics would accept actions
like these in their maritime jurisdiction, but we
won’t,” Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino
Lopez stated Saturday, describing the incident as a
“provocation.”</p>
<p>“All operations of law enforcement in this place
where the US vessel was correspond to Venezuela by
international law. This was an armed coast guard
patrolling these waters,” he went on to state.</p>
<p>The USCG James was detected in the so-called<a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters#Contiguous_zone">
contiguous zone</a> of Venezuelan waters which
covers 12-24 miles from the coastline. In this
maritime band and according to international law, the
free passage of foreign ships is allowed, but Caracas
has full sovereignty in political, migratory, border,
sanitary, and fiscal matters, including law
enforcement and “intercepting drugs.”</p>
<p>According to the <a
href="https://www.atlanticarea.uscg.mil/Area-Cutters/CGCJAMES/">US
Navy website</a>, the USCG James (WMSL 754) is one
of the most advanced patrol vessels in its fleet,
carrying modern surveillance and reconnaissance
equipment, as well as being able to serve as a command
post for “complex law enforcement and national
security missions involving the Coast Guard and
numerous partner agencies.”</p>
<p>The border incursion comes as Caracas reopened its
borders with Brazil and the Dutch island of Aruba on
Friday, in efforts to boost border trade. The borders
had been closed for over three months since Guaido’s <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14347">failed
attempt to force humanitarian “aid” into the country
on February 23</a>.</p>
<p><em>Edited by Ricardo Vaz from Caracas.</em></p>
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