The United States continues to prepare for a possible regime change in Venezuela and plans to initiate sanctions against Cuba, National Security adviser John Bolton said on Fox Business Wednesday.
Fighting broke out in the streets of Caracas Tuesday, as Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido led an effort to oust current President Nicolas Maduro.
“You know, these demonstrations were planned long before the events of yesterday,” Bolton told host Stuart Varney.
“We did see yesterday in the second largest city, and other cities, the police, the national Guard, didn’t interfere with the demonstrators. So had there not been this intimidation and violence yesterday, we would have expected that you’d have very large demonstrations today. We still expect that but we’ re going to watch the situation very closely.”
Bolton said President Donald Trump was serious when he promised to initiate sanctions against Cuba if they don’t remove their armed people from Venezuela.
“The president has a habit of saying what he means and then carrying through on it, so if I were sitting in Havana, I would pay very close attention to that,” he said.
“We’ve called Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela the troika of tyranny in the Western Hemisphere. We’re very concerned about it because of the implications for the free countries in the hemisphere. And it’s one important reason, I think, people should understand, this is not just the United States concerned with what’s happening in Venezuela. All over the hemisphere, democratic governments support Juan Guaido and the opposition.”
Bolton said he and other White House officials are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss further options.
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