Michael Hernandez
01 May 2019•Update: 01 May 2019
WASHINGTON
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, according to the State Department.
Pompeo "stressed that the intervention by Russia and Cuba is destabilizing for Venezuela and for the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
"The Secretary urged Russia to cease support for Nicolas Maduro and join other nations, including the overwhelming majority of countries in the Western Hemisphere, who seek a better future for the Venezuelan people," Ortagus added.
Pompeo earlier in the day warned of possible military action, saying U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to do what is necessary to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"We're trying to do everything to avoid violence. We've asked all the parties involved not to engage in that kind of activity," Pompeo told Fox Business.
The U.S. has thrown its support behind an ongoing military uprising aimed at ousting Maduro from power led by opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Guaido issued a video message Tuesday alongside a small contingent of uniformed military personnel and armored vehicles in which he called for an uprising to end the "usurpation" of Maduro, and has continued to call for mass demonstration against the Venezuelan president.
The opposition leader stressed it was the beginning of the final phase of the effort to oust Maduro, known as Operation Liberty.
The U.S.'s top diplomat said Tuesday that Maduro was ready to leave the country, with an "airplane on the tarmac," but Russia had convinced him to stay.
"But the president [Trump] has made clear that in the event that there comes a moment, and we’ll all have to make decisions about when that moment is, and the president will ultimately have to make that decision," the secretary of state said.
Venezuela has been in the throes of humanitarian and economic crises amid the political deadlock between Guaido and Maduro as Washington has ramped up diplomatic and economic pressure on Caracas, including sanctioning the state-run oil company in a bid to get Maduro to relinquish power.
The political stalemate comes as Venezuela grapples with an economy that has been torn asunder by the global decline in the price of oil -- Venezuela's chief export.
The severe economic crisis has led to acute shortages of goods and medicine, and has repeatedly resulted in widespread power outages.
