US Looks to Push Venezuela Off International Bodies

Demands removal of 'illegitimate' government appointees

Venezuela’s international representatives are being systematically purged from all bodies of note, as the Trump Administration looks to move on from declaring President Maduro “illegitimate” after the most recent election to now insisting that anyone he appointed to these bodies must also be “illegitimate.”

This has recently meant the expulsion of envoys from the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as UN Disarmament Conference in Geneva, with US officials demanding that they not be included.

Beyond getting them kicked out, the US is keen to replace them with people appointed by opposition leader Juan Guaido, who the US insists is the rightful, US-accepted ruler of Venezuela.

The US started this push by trying to replace the boards of directors for key companies with Guaido allies, believing that would further keep the Maduro government from accessing government-owned assets. So far this has meant little inside Venezuela, but the goal seems to be to at least provide the illusion that regime change took place.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.