Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and voiced the United States' continued support, CNN is reporting.
Pompeo's meeting with Guaido, the first time the two men have seen each other face-to-face, came Monday at the Third Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial in Bogota, Colombia. CNN noted it came almost one year to the day after the U.S. recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president.
"For the Venezuelan people, I want you to know that your president is a great leader who wants to take your country in the right direction — the direction of freedom, democracy, to restore economic prosperity," Pompeo said in remarks during his meeting with Guaido.
"You should know that countries across the world — in Latin America where we are today, in Colombia, in Europe, the United States, all across North America — the people, the democratic people of those countries are with you."
Guaido was in Colombia despite a ban on his travel outside of Venezuela ordered by the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
He also is scheduled to be in London, Brussels, and in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.
Guaido would not say whether he would meet with President Donald Trump, who is also at the Davos forum, according to CNN.
The United States, along with some 50 other nations, has recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state since last January when he invoked the Constitution as head of Congress and declared Maduro an usurper.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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