US Envoy Says Deal Was Reached With Top Venezuelan Officials on Regime Change

Claims deal was negotiated for a long time, but 'they are not going forward'

Apparently part of the confidence the Trump Administration had about the Venezuelan coup earlier in the day were some backroom deals with top officials to go along with the idea.

US Special Envoy Elliott Abrams revealed that the US had tried to negotiate the deals with Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, Supreme Court Chief Justice Maikel Moreno, and the commander of the presidential guard. Abrams gave the impression that the US believed these to be done deals.

Yet in the end, to quote Abrams, “it seems today they are not going forward.” None of those three has confirmed any secret deals, nor or they likely to, and the administration is offering no evidence such a deal was in place. Padrino in particular maintained that the military is loyal to the Maduro government.

This is just another detail in the US attempt to get a handle on the narrative of what went wrong with their long-sought regime change. Officials have also sought to blame Russia and Cuba, following Mick Mulvaney insisting that the two nations were not supposed to get involved.

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.