CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition leader Juan Guaido said Friday that he trusts U.S. President Donald Trump’s “firm and determined” backing following a White House meeting aimed at helping him steer crisis-stricken Venezuela toward a democratic transition.
The Venezuelan politician bent on ousting President Nicolas Maduro with backing from roughly 60 foreign nations told The Associated Press that additional tough U.S. sanctions will soon follow, including those cutting off Maduro’s sale of “blood-stained gold.”
“For me he is very trustworthy,” Guaido said of Trump. “We had a very good meeting. I think he is a man of his word.”
He spoke to AP in his first face-to-face interview since returning from a tour that took him across Europe and into an Oval Office meeting a year into his campaign to oust Maduro.
Guaido, leader of Venezuela’s opposition-dominated congress, said he will lead a street march in the coming weeks that comes amid a turf battle to retake the legislative meeting hall in Venezuela’s capital that Maduro loyalists have forcefully blocked.
Guaido said that during the White House meeting, Trump and the U.S. secretaries of state, defense and commerce charted plans to force Maduro from power. Guaido said there are details he still can’t discuss.
“The pressure is rising diplomatically and financially on the corrupt financiers and human rights violators,” he said.
This week, the White House unveiled sanctions against a Russian state-controlled company that has helped the Venezuelan government skirt an American oil embargo and enabled Maduro to keep his grip on power.
The same day, however, Trump in impromptu comments used less than robust words to describe Guaido’s leadership.
Asked if he believes Guaido is “still the guy to get Maduro out of office,” Trump replied: “Well, he’s the person that the country, right now, prefers, and that’s what I go with. We’ll see what happens.”
