Speaking from the Oval Office Wednesday during a meeting with Fabiana Rosales, the wife of Venezuelan President Juan Guido, President Trump said Russia needs to get out of the country as dictator Nicolas Maduro refuses to leave power.
"Russia has to get out. What's your next question?" Trump said. "Venezuela was a country with tremendous potential and is still a country with tremendous potential. But people are starving. They're being killed. They’re being beaten. What’s going there is unfathomable to everybody that sees and everybody that gets reports, we're getting reports that are horrible.”
Over the weekend, a number of aircrafts carrying Russian troops landed in Venezuelan. Their mission is to bolster the Maduro regime.
Two Russian military planes landed in Venezuela's main airport on Saturday, reportedly carrying dozens of troops and large amounts of equipment.
The planes were sent to "fulfil technical military contracts", Russia's Sputnik news agency reported.
Javier Mayorca, a Venezuelan journalist, wrote on Twitter that he saw about 100 troops and 35 tonnes of equipment offloaded from the planes.
It comes three months after the two nations held joint military exercises.
Russia has long been an ally of Venezuela, lending the South American nation billions of dollars and backing its oil industry and military.
Russia has also vocally opposed moves from the US to impose sanctions on the government of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
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As far as what's next for the Maduro regime, President Trump said all options are on the table as the U.S. keeps up the pressure.
“They’ve [Maduro regime] got a lot of pressure right now. They have no money, they have no oil, they have no nothing. They’ve got plenty of pressure right now. They have no electricity. Other than military you can’t get any more pressure than they have," Trump said. "All options are open."
Earlier today, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton backed up President Trump's message.
As President Trump made clear today, “Russia needs to get out” of Venezuela.
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) March 27, 2019
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