FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/VENEZUELA: “President Donald Trump said on Monday [9-18-17] he wanted democracy restored soon in Venezuela and warned that the United States might take additional measures to apply pressure on the oil-producing nation.
At a dinner with Latin American leaders on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump said the Venezuelan people were starving and their country, once one of the wealthiest, was collapsing.
Brazilian President Michel Temer told reporters afterwards that all present at the dinner agreed on the need to ramp up international pressure on the Socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro but without intervening directly in Venezuela.
The United States has applied financial sanctions against Venezuela, the supplier of 10 percent of the oil it consumes, and Trump said his government is prepared to take additional steps if Maduro continues on a path to authoritarian rule…
Besides Temer, Trump invited presidents Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Juan Carlos Varela of Panama and Argentine Vice President Gabriela Michetti to the dinner with their foreign ministers.
At least 125 people have been killed in four months of protests against the Maduro government, which has resisted calls to bring forward the presidential election and instead set up a pro-Maduro legislative superbody called a Constituent Assembly that has overruled the country’s opposition-led Congress.”
-Steve Holland and Anthony Boadle, “Trump says democracy must be restored in Venezuela soon,” Reuters, Sept. 18, 2017 04:06pm