MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US Southern Command: Efforts to oust Maduro “have worked” though “not so fast”

Admiral Craig Faller pointed out that the Venezuelan president is still in power thanks to external factors made up by Cuba, Russia, China and Iran

International efforts to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “have worked,” Admiral Craig Faller, head of the U.S. Southern Command, said Monday but added that it will take time to get results.

“I'm often asked, why is it taking so long, why haven't the efforts of the United States worked,” Faller asked himself at an online roundtable with his political advisor, Ambassador Jean Manes, organized by the business forum Council of the Americas.

“I would say that the U.S. efforts have worked,” he responded, though not “fast enough for the Venezuelan people.

Since January 2019, the government of Donald Trump has led a diplomatic offensive in favor of congressional leader Juan Guaidó, whom it recognizes as the country's interim president, although impatience is growing among Venezuelans in the opposition because this has not materialized on the ground after two years of economic sanctions.

”It took a generation to get to this point and it will take a while to unpack the democratic framework of Representative (Elliott) Abrams,“ explained Faller, referring to the top U.S. official in charge of Venezuela.

Faller added that Maduro remains in power thanks to external factors shaped by Cuba, which provides intelligence services; Russia, which provides economic and military aid; China, which is its main creditor; and Iran, which is providing oil.

”Everything fits together,“ Faller said, attributing to these factors ”the slow change to democracy.”

The leader of the Southern Command, which is in charge of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean, Central and South America, in turn congratulated Colombia for overcoming the cumulative challenges posed by drug trafficking, the flow of Venezuelan migrants and the pandemic.

“The peace process has been challenged by the threats that Colombia is facing in the neighborhood,” Faller said, referring to the five million people the U.N. says have emigrated from Venezuela, many across the border from Colombia.

Faller also condemned illegal fishing, most of which would be the responsibility of China, “a corrosive influence in this hemisphere,” he said. (AFP)