BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON VENEZUELA
Via Telephone
January 23, 2019
1:43 P.M. EST
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, everybody. Thank you for joining this phone call. This is, of course, an important moment, and we want to make sure that you have all the details and information that we can share as soon as possible.
As hopefully everybody on this line has seen, the President had a statement on Venezuela, and that went out about a half an hour ago from White House Press.
If you have not seen that statement, please feel free to reach out to us, or White House Press, and they can give that to you.
That said, I'm going to introduce one of my colleagues from (inaudible) at the NSC. He is going to walk through the President's statements, share a few words, and then take Q&A.
This call is embargoed until the completion of the call, and it's attributed to a senior administration official only.
So with that, let me introduce my colleague, and he can make a few words and share the President's remarks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good afternoon. So as my colleague mentioned, let me start out with reading the President's statement, and then I’ll add a few things to it. And then I'll open up for Q&A.
According to the statement, it says, "Today…" -- the statement from the President:
"Today, I am officially recognizing the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the Interim President of Venezuela. In its role as the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people, the National Assembly invoked the country’s constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro illegitimate, and the office of the presidency therefore vacant. The people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law.
I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy. We encourage other Western Hemisphere governments to recognize National Assembly President Guaidó as the Interim President of Venezuela, and we will work constructively with them in support of his efforts to restore constitutional legitimacy. We continue to hold the illegitimate Maduro regime directly responsible for any threats it may pose to the safety of the Venezuelan people. As Interim President Guaidó noted yesterday: 'Violence is the usurper’s weapon; we only have one clear action: to remain united and firm for a democratic and free Venezuela.'"
With this, I will add that this recognition by President Trump is pursuant to his Article II of powers to recognize foreign leaders. As such, this is an important moment and it's an important message to the Maduro regime and an opportunity for them to have a peaceful transition and to accept a peaceful transition to democracy according to their own constitution and their own legal order.
If the Maduro government chooses to respond -- if Maduro and his cronies choose to respond with violence, if they choose to harm any of the National Assembly members or any of the other duly legitimate officials of the government of Venezuela, all options are on the table for the United States in regards to actions to be taken.
As we have said, the full diplomatic and economic (inaudible) United States will be put forward in support of the legitimate Interim President of Venezuela, who President Trump has now said is Juan Guaidó.
I'll open it up for any questions.
Q Hi, thank you for having this call. I noticed that on the statement you mentioned encouraging other Western Hemisphere countries. What sort of -- what actions will the administration take to still encourage other countries, such as maybe Mexico, that’s maybe not being very fast on this, on recognizing Guaidó? This is (inaudible) with the Hill.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah. So we've been working constructively with countries particularly of the Lima Group, which consists of larger countries on the Western Hemisphere, along with some of the Caribbean countries. But we've been working with those countries and namely, obviously, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Canada, and others in regards to what position they are looking to take and what actions they are planning to pursue.
We've also been talking obviously to the European Union and other countries. Altogether, between the European Union, the Lima Group, and other countries such as Japan, Australia, et cetera, there are almost around (inaudible) countries that held that the Maduro government was illegitimate. And so, therefore, consequently, the next action should be to recognize Juan Guaidó as the legitimate Interim President of Venezuela.
So we will continue to work with all of our partners who have spoken out very loudly and clearly on the issue in order to, one, encourage them to take further steps to ensure that Maduro and his cronies are not able to loot any further from the Venezuelan people. And, by the way, and in that regards, to work productively if Maduro chooses to seek -- to accept a peaceful transition of power, to find an exit solution for him in that regard.
Q Thank you for doing this. This is Andrea Mitchell at NBC News. Can you explain what you mean by "all options are on the table"? And what could precipitate such actions? And what steps can you, or have you taken to protect Americans who have actually been in custody still in Venezuela, including some people from the oil companies who have been down there for quite some time and have not been released? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah. So first and foremost, our embassy in Caracas has been extraordinarily active and has been very vigilant of events, and has been in contact, obviously, with the families, with Americans that are on the ground, families of those affected -- some that may be in prison, and others. So, clearly, our embassy is very cognizant of all of these facts and has prepared for all different scenarios.
In regards to the options, frankly, in our sanctions we've barely scratched the surface of what actions the United States can take from an economic sanctions front. We are willing, and we consider that all of those options are viable. You know, it's not very difficult to figure out what constitutes the majority of -- (inaudible) majority of hard currency that is being looted by Maduro and his cronies.
And therefore, the message is very clear, which we hope the Maduro government has gotten, is that the United States remains resolute in supporting a peaceful transition to democracy and freedom in Venezuela, and it will not allow an illegitimate individual -- in this case, Nicolas Maduro -- or his cronies to continue to loot the assets of the Venezuelan people, of the Venezuelan state, regardless of what sector it is, whether it's gold, oil, or (inaudible).
Q Hi, this is Andrew Feinberg with Breakfast Media. Thanks for doing this call. So over the past two years -- two years of the Trump administration -- you guys have taken a lot of actions on Venezuela and listed a whole host of abuses by the Maduro regime: (inaudible) and suppression of freedom of the press, ignoring free elections, suppressing dissent, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
But Venezuela seems to be one of the few nations that the President and the administration routinely criticizes for this stuff. Governments like Erdogan's in Turkey, Putin's in Russia, Duterte's in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia -- they get congratulatory calls, and Venezuela gets called out and sanctioned. Why is Venezuela's government -- the Maduro political government -- so much worse than all of these other dictators who the President has said very nice things about on occasion?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah. So our policy towards the Western Hemisphere is dictated by the commitment that 34 out of 35 countries, including Venezuela, made on September 11, 2001, ironically, in Lima, Peru at the time, which was signed at the time by Secretary Powell, who was there, on the Inter-American Democratic Charter which holds that a representative democracy is the practice in the Western Hemisphere.
We are bound by the commitment that we made in the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Venezuela is bound by the commitment that it made in the Inter-American Democratic Charter. And we hold democracy to be not only an American value, not only for the United States, but across the Western Hemisphere. That is the reality of geopolitics.
Q Hi, this is Ian Talley, Wall Street Journal. Thanks for doing this. Can you tell me, firstly, how this decision was made within the administration? Did this come from Trump himself? Was it orchestrated by the NSC? Was State pushing for this? Just, can you give us some insight there?
And secondly, I just want to clarify when you say that "all actions are on the table," then you used the clause of diplomatic and economic -- when you say "all actions" are you restraining what that means, or confining it to economic and diplomatic, and not to, sort of, a naval blockade, or any (inaudible) of military force?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So to answer your first question, Article II of the Constitution provides the power to recognize foreign leaders only to the President, therefore, and not to anybody else, or to any other branch of the Executive. Therefore, this decision was made solely and squarely by the President who is the person that has the Constitutional authority to do so.
The President's interest, his message, his consistency on Venezuela and the need for a democratic transition there is unequivocal. We've seen it for over a year in that regard, so it's fully consistent with where we have been as an administration from day one.
In regards to the sanctions, you know, knowing what we have done, and understanding what is on the table, and which everything is on the table -- all options -- but in the economic sphere, if you look at what we have done, there is still a tremendous amount of leverage and there's still a tremendous amount of magnitude in our toolbox in that regard.
As I said previously, we haven’t even scratched the surface, per se. And there's a whole new -- a whole bunch of new dynamics that come into play, including the fact that now the legitimate decision-makers in regards to economic transactions between Venezuela and the United States is the government of Interim President Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly. And that will entail a whole bunch of consequences on daily interactions between Venezuela and the United States.
If Nicolas Maduro and his cronies attempt to usurp those authorities and engage in certain transactions, that would constitute, frankly, an illegality. And those are issues that will be discussed in the coming days.
Q Hi, thanks so much. It's Nick Schifrin from PBS NewsHour. Thanks so much for doing this. I just want to be a little more specific on the punishment, if Maduro, for example, arrests Guaidó, or does any (inaudible.) I've been told that, you know, you've got an oil embargo ready. Would that oil embargo be instituted if Guaidó was arrested or something happened to him, or if there was violence in the next few hours?
And then, an overall question: Now that he has declared himself Interim President, and now that the President of the United States has declared Guaidó Interim President, does that mean that you can divert money toward whomever he says is the rightful recipient of oil revenue? And does that mean you can, for example, kick out Venezuelan (inaudible) and replace them with Guaidó's diplomat?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, so you were cutting in and out, but I got most of your question. You know, when we say all options on the table, it means all options are on the table. And in that sense, you know, let's remain optimistic and hope that Maduro and his cronies saw the message, the magnitude, frankly, of the message -- (inaudible), frankly, in the last decade -- the magnitude of the message that the Venezuelan people have sent him and his cronies, and will seek to accept this peaceful transition and will seek an exit route -- a peaceful exit route. So let's remain hopeful in that regards.
Now, if they choose the route of violence and seek to usurp the constitutional order and democracy, let us be clear that we have a host of options. We will take every single one of those options seriously. And the message to Maduro and his cronies would be that if that is the route they choose, that it would be very clear to them that they will have no immediate future, they will have no immediate livelihood, and therefore, one way or another, have their days counted.
END 1:59 P.M. EST
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