During a meeting with the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., organization President David Rubenstein asked the secretary if the United States is willing to send troops to prevent further violence from occurring.
“The president has said pretty clearly: we’re going to do all that it takes to make sure the Venezuelan people get democracy back,” Pompeo said.
The secretary added that “we’re closer today than we were several months ago, but in the end, we’ll do our part and the nations of the region — we’ve built out a great coalition from members of the Organization of American States to what we call the Lima Group to 56 or 58 other countries who are joining us and who understand Maduro is not the duly elected president.”
Several U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, have said on different occasions that “all options are on the table” when it comes to Venezuela, but indicate that they prefer to continue economic and diplomatic pressure for the time being.
As part of this diplomatic pressure, the United States imposed sanctions on July 25 against a businessman and Colombian associates, including three of Maduro’s stepsons, accused of leading a global network that used Venezuela’s emergency food program — known as CLAP — and gold profits to launder stolen state assets.
On July 28, in statements to VOA, U.S. Navy Admiral Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, reiterated the U.S. government’s support to Venezuela’s Interim President Juan Guaidó, and said his command is ready to support “anything the legitimate government requests” and that comes from a “political decision” by the U.S. government.
However, he said that up to now, the U.S. military focus “has been one of support.”