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Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>UNITED NATIONS - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says the United States will exert diplomatic and economic pressure to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela, but adds that "all options are on the table."

Pence addressed the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday and urged the United Nations to recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's president in place of Nicolás Maduro and revoke the credentials of Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada, who was also seated at the council's horseshoe-shaped table.

Pence told him. "With all due respect Mr. ambassador, you shouldn't be here." The vice president added: "You should return to Venezuela and tell Nicolás Maduro that his time is up. It's time for him to go."

Pence said the United States would be circulating a Security Council resolution to recognize Guaidó and stand with the Venezuelan people "as they rise up ... against intimidation and violence" and for freedom.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Vice President Mike Pence lobbied the United Nations on Wednesday to remove the credentials of Nicolás Maduro’s envoy Samuel Moncada, citing the illegitimacy of Venezuela’s ruling socialist regime over the troubled South American country.

At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Pence directly addressed Venezuelan envoy Samuel Moncada soon after he had spoken.

“With all due respect, Mr. Ambassador, you shouldn’t be here,” Pence said after Moncada spoke. “You should return to Venezuela and tell Nicolas Maduro that his time is up. It’s time for him to go.”

Pence then went on to urge the body to strip Moncada of his credentials, saying it should instead allow opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized by the U.S. and most other Western democracies as the country’s rightful president, to send his own ambassador.

“Up to this point, while other international bodies have acted, the United Nations and this Security Council have refused to act,” he continued. “But now that nations across this hemisphere have spoken, the time has come for the United Nations to recognize Interim President Juan Guaidó as the legitimate President of Venezuela and seat his representative in this body.”

“This body should revoke the credentials of Venezuela’s representative to the United Nations, recognize Interim President Juan Guaidó, and seat the representative of the free Venezuelan government in this body without delay,” he continued.

The regime has long used the United Nations as a platform to rail against the U.S. and other opponents of their socialist project. Last year, Maduro used his speech at the annual General Assembly to tell the world that Venezuela is “stronger than ever” despite the desperate economic and humanitarian crisis ravaging the country’s basic ability to function.

In recent months, the U.S. has stepped up its efforts to help remove Maduro from power. Washington recognized Guaidó as president and placing fresh economic sanctions against the regime and its financial entities. The sanctions are mainly intended to stifle Maduro’s ability to access foreign revenue streams as the U.S. has handed control of various Venezuelan bank accounts to Guaidó and his economic advisers.

The efforts have so far proved unsuccessful. Maduro still retains the vital support of the military, as well as support from China and Russia in the form of troops and military equipment. Following the meeting on Wednesday, Pence told reporters that momentum was now building against the regime and that he hoped other nations join efforts to oust Maduro from office.

“We really do believe that freedom has the momentum but now it’s time for this body, this historic institution to step forward and to give voice to that momentum and we’re going to be reaching out to nations across the world to join us,” he said.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.</s>Vice President Mike Pence urged the United Nations Security Council to formally recognize Juan Guaidó as the leader of Venezuela instead of its disputed president, Nicolás Maduro.</s>WASHINGTON — The Organization of American States on Tuesday recognized a Venezuelan opposition envoy as his nation's representative to the regional group until new elections are held in the South American country.

Gustavo Tarre was accepted by the OAS a day after another envoy designated by opposition leader Juan Guaidó was recognized by President Donald Trump as Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S.

The OAS adopted the resolution recognizing Tarre with 18 votes in favor, nine against, six abstentions and one absence.

The U.S. and most of the 34 member states of the OAS recognize Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela. They say President Nicolas Maduro wasn't legitimately re-elected last year because leading opposition candidates weren't permitted to run.

Maduro's government called the decision a "criminal and rampant violation of international law and the OAS Charter."

The Foreign Ministry said in a press release that Venezuela will consider "null" any decision taken by Tarre, whom it described as a "loud-mouth political usurper."

Tarre told reporters he plans to take over the job after he delivers his credential letter to OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro on Wednesday morning.

"It means the usurpation of the Venezuelan seat (at the organization) has ended," he said.

The OAS is the second multilateral organization to recognize representatives designated by Guaidó.

The Inter-American Development Bank accepted Ricardo Hausmann as the Venezuelan envoy last month. It later called off its general assembly after host China refused to grant him a visa. China is one of the main allies of Maduro, along with Russia.</s>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The latest on Venezuela’s political and humanitarian crisis (all times local): 6:50 p.m. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is lambasting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s remarks at the U.N. Security Council as…

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The latest on Venezuela’s political and humanitarian crisis (all times local):

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is lambasting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s remarks at the U.N. Security Council as both “ridiculous” and “racist.”

In a televised address early Wednesday evening, Maduro said Pence’s comments show U.S. leaders “think they are superior to Venezuelans.”

He added that on Pence’s face he could see “the hate, the racism” harbored toward Venezuela.

Pence urged the United Nations to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president and revoke the credentials of Samuel Moncada, who is the U.N. ambassador for Maduro’s government.

Pence told Moncada at a Security Council meeting: “With all due respect Mr. Ambassador, you shouldn’t be here.”

Maduro frequently engages in a war of words with his U.S. counterparts as tensions between both nations mount amid Venezuela’s power struggle.

The International Committee of the Red Cross will triple its budget in Venezuela this year as it helps authorities address mounting humanitarian concerns in the politically turbulent nation.

Red Cross President Peter Maurer wrapped up a five-day visit to Venezuela on Wednesday — the first by the head of the aid group in decades.

The trip took him to several public hospitals, slums and migrant centers that have seen the worst of a social crisis expected to worsen as U.S. financial sanctions take effect. He also met with President Nicolas Maduro as well as two vice presidents of the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Maurer said his Geneva-based organization is tripling its budget this year in Venezuela to around $24 million and almost doubling its staff to around 180 people. He said it will focus its efforts on rehabilitating hospitals, increasing water supplies, training the armed forces in international humanitarian law and visiting detainees among other activities. He said the work would be concentrated in Caracas, southern Bolivar state and the restive border region with Colombia.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is touring the capital region to rally supporters, saying it not the time to rest in the fight to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaidó made several stops Wednesday across the capital of Caracas. He took a microphone each time for short speeches, pointing to constant blackouts and water shortages blamed on Maduro’s failed socialist government.

Guaidó said Venezuelans are living a “tragedy” that must end with the transition of power through new elections.

The head of the National Assembly also urged the armed forces to reject Maduro.

He’s being met by dozens of cheering supporters in some neighborhoods with hundreds greeting him at others.

Guaidó is backed by the United States among 50 nations that demand Maduro step down. Maduro calls Guaidó a “puppet” of a Washington-led coup.

Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador says the country is threatened with war by the Trump administration, “and the ground is being laid for an invasion.”

Samuel Moncada told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday: “We must stop this war of Donald Trump.”

He said the actions causing humanitarian suffering in Venezuela “are the direct fruit of a plan of economic destruction put together by the government of the United States and the United Kingdom.”

Moncada said the aim is to strangle the country’s economy to provoke “a social implosion that they can then use as a pretext for foreign military intervention.”

He called it “a mindboggling inhumane experiment in unconventional warfare” and said it is aimed at importing a “puppet government” led by opposition leader Juan Guaidó

But Moncada said the U.S. has miscalculated because while the Venezuelan people and government are suffering, the “national spirit” has increased under pressure and the armed forces have not broken.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador says the emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Venezuela called by the United States is just “another episode of a tragedy with several acts in the attempt to change regime in Venezuela.”

Vassily Nebenzia said the United States “has artificially provoked a crisis in this country in order to overthrow a legitimately elected leader and replace him with their own pawn.”

Russia is a strong supporter of President Nicolás Maduro’s government, while the United States and 54 other countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president.

At Wednesday’s session, Nebenzia called on “the United States to recognize that the Venezuelan people and other people have the right to determine their future.”

In his words, “If you want to make America great again, and we’re all sincerely interested in seeing that, stop interfering in the affairs of other states.”

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says the United States will exert diplomatic and economic pressure to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela, but adds that “all options are on the table.”

Pence addressed the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday and urged the United Nations to recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president in place of Nicolás Maduro and revoke the credentials of Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada, who was also seated at the council’s horseshoe-shaped table.

Pence told him. “With all due respect Mr. ambassador, you shouldn’t be here.” The vice president added: “You should return to Venezuela and tell Nicolás Maduro that his time is up. It’s time for him to go.”

Pence said the United States would be circulating a Security Council resolution to recognize Guaidó and stand with the Venezuelan people “as they rise up … against intimidation and violence” and for freedom.

OPEC says Venezuela pumped 960,000 barrel of oil a day in March, a one-third drop from the previous month in a country enduring U.S. oil sanctions and nationwide blackouts.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced the figures in a monthly report that was released Wednesday.

Venezuela’s oil output has been in decline and it pumped about three times as much oil two decades ago. But the industry’s deterioration has accelerated since the United States imposed sanctions in January and power outages struck across the country in early March.

Oil has long been the chief source of income in a country that claims the world’s largest proven petroleum reserves.

The U.S. took action against the Venezuelan oil industry to support opposition leader Juan Guaido’s campaign to topple President Nicolás Maduro.

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock says Venezuela’s humanitarian problem has worsened and “the scale of need is significant and growing” — with 7 million people representing 25 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid.

Lowcock told a Security Council meeting called by the United States on Wednesday that the U.N. is working to expand humanitarian aid, but that much more is needed.

He said there’s “a need to separate political and humanitarian objectives” and urged the council’s support “to safeguard the neutral and impartial nature of humanitarian action.”

Lowcock also urged the council to press for sustained and regular access to people in need, and to fund the expansion of humanitarian programs.

He said Venezuela’s “severe and continuing economic contraction” means the availability and affordability of food has fallen and malnutrition has increased, especially in areas with the highest poverty rates.

Human Rights Watch and public health researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are urging the United Nations to declare the situation in Venezuela “a complex humanitarian emergency that poses a serious risk to the region.”

They appealed to the Security Council ahead of its meeting Wednesday on Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis to ask Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to make a declaration because their research shows severe medicine and food shortages in Venezuela, and disease spreading across its borders.

Dr. Kathleen Page of Johns Hopkins says Guterres “should ring the alarm bell and demonstrate leadership by ensuring that the U.N.’s vast resources can be mobilized for the Venezuelan people in a way that is neutral, independent, and impartial.”

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>CARACAS – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro condemned the speech of US Vice President Mike Pence at the UN Security Council on Venezuela.

The Venezuelan president strongly criticized the US vice president for having compared the current Venezuelan government to that of Nazi Germany.

“Today he [Pence] went to the UN to declare that I am Adolf Hitler and that the world should unite as it was united against Adolf Hitler. I believe that Adolf Hitler is on the other side. The supremacists, the fascists, the racists are not ruling in Venezuela, they are ruling in the North,” Maduro said, in reference to North America/the United States.

“A speech full of lies, falsehood, manipulation, false news, smelly, Mike Pence’s speech stinks, his speech about Venezuela stinks,” the president said in a broadcast on television and radio.

Likewise, the head of state reminded the government of Donald Trump that in Venezuela, the president is not chosen by a US official.

“Today [Mike Pence] made a speech as a US presidential candidate […] they believe in the empire that rules, that governs, that overthrows and puts [in power],” said Maduro.

Earlier, Pence told Venezuela’s UN deputy, Samuel Moncada, that he should resign from that body and demanded that the Security Council recognize the opposition Juan Guaidó as Venezuelan president.

On January 21, mass protests erupted in Venezuela against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shortly after he took office for the second term.

On January 23, the country’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, proclaimed himself acting president, having been supported by Brazil, the United States and several other countries. Maduro received the support of such countries as Russia, Mexico, China, Turkey, Indonesia and others.

Although Guaidó’s coup attempted two and a half months ago, he has had no success with no major defections from the military, no control of any governmental bodies, and is now being prosecuted as a traitor.</s>The UN should admit a representative of Juan Guaido's Venezuela government in place of the envoy appointed by Nicolas Maduro, US Vice President Mike Pence told international representatives on Wednesday.

"The time has come for the United Nations to recognize interim president Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela and seat his representative in this body," Pence added.

Venezuela's parliamentary speaker Juan Guaido declared himself interim president in January, claiming that his rival Nicolas Maduro had lost legitimacy. The US, its European allies, and dozen of other countries have endorsed the move.

On Wednesday, Pence said the US was preparing a draft resolution which would see the UN recognize Guaido as president and replace the current Venezuelan ambassador with a new one, appointed by Guaido.

The US leader called on the UN to revoke the credentials of the current Venezuela representative Samuel Moncada. He also addressed Moncada directly during his UN speech.

"With all due respect Mr. ambassador, you shouldn't be here," Pence told the envoy who attended the Wednesday session. "You should return to Venezuela and tell Nicolas Maduro that his time is up. It's time for him to go."

The US move comes just a day after the Organization of American States (OAS) voted to recognize Guaido's ambassador.

However, it was extremely unlikely that the UN Security Council would approve the US-proposed resolution. The left-leaning leader Nicolas Maduro still enjoys strong support from China and Russia, with the latter involved in key oil-related projects in Venezuela.

Following Pence's speech, Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said that the US had "artificially provoked a crisis" in Venezuela in order to overthrow "a legitimately elected leader and replace him with their own pawn."

"If you want to make America great again, and we're all sincerely interested in seeing that, stop interfering in the affairs of other states," Nebenzia told US officials.

Earlier on Wednesday, UN aid chief Mark Lowcock told the council of the grave humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. With the country hit by prolonged economic crisis, malnutrition rates have tripled in the last five years and seven million people lack basic access to food and medical care, Lowcock said.

Over 3.4 million Venezuelans have left the country, and the number of refugees is expected to hit five million until the end of 2019, he added.

Every day, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. Sign up for the newsletter here.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Organization of American States is recognizing a Venezuelan opposition envoy as his nation's representative to the regional group until new elections are held in the South American country.

Gustavo Tarre was accepted by the OAS on Tuesday. It came a day after another envoy designated by opposition leader Juan Guaidó was recognized by President Donald Trump as Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S.

The OAS adopted the resolution recognizing Tarre with 18 votes in favor, nine against, six abstentions and one absence.

The U.S. and most of the 34 member states of the OAS recognize Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela. They say President Nicolas Maduro wasn't legitimately re-elected last year because opposition candidates weren't permitted to run.</s>Washington — As part of a renewed campaign by the Trump administration to isolate Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo categorized the socialist South American government a "true threat" to U.S. national security.

"It is clearly the case that the former leadership of Venezuela — the Maduro regime — is a true threat the United States of America," Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing Wednesday, citing Russia's military and political support for the Venezuelan government, as well as the alliances between Maduro and other U.S. adversaries like Cuba and Iran.

The comments by America's chief diplomat came on the same day Vice President Mike Pence called on the United Nations to revoke the credentials of Maduro's representatives. After issuing a scathing rebuke of the Venezuelan government at a special session of the UN Security Council, Pence told CBS News the administration remained committed to considering "all options" when carrying out its strategy on Venezuela.

The vice president also announced that the administration was pledging to dispatch $61 million in additional humanitarian aid to the more than 3 million Venezuelans who have fled the crisis-stricken country in recent years because of widespread food and medicine shortages.

Despite a growing coalition of governments calling for him to relinquish power, Maduro has managed remain in office with the unwavering loyalty of the country's military. Since January, the U.S. has issued a series of sweeping economic sanctions against the Venezuelan government and state-affiliated companies. The Trump administration has also strongly supported the leadership challenge by National Assembly President Juan Guaidó, who is recognized by the U.S. and more than four dozen other governments as Venezuela's interim president.

Although Maduro and his socialist ruling party enjoy support from many poor and working-class Venezuelans, his government has been facing its toughest challenge to date from Guaidó, who has highlighted the country's plummeting economy, as well as the exodus of Venezuelans, in calling for Maduro's ouster.
After the Organization of American States accepts an envoy from the government of President of the Venezuelan National Assembly Juan Guaidó as ambassador, United States Vice President Mike Pence asks for the United Nations to expel and replace the Nicolás Maduro-appointed Venezuelan envoy in its own chamber.