National Security Adviser John Bolton said that the United States will form “as broad a coalition” as possible to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Bolton went on to call for a “completely democratic hemisphere.”
“I’d like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace Maduro, to replace the whole corrupt regime,” Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Within hours of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declaring himself interim president in January, the Donald Trump administration threw its support behind the self-declared leader. While several Latin American countries followed the US line, efforts to drum up international support against Maduro have thus far proven unsuccessful. A US resolution condemning Maduro and calling for fresh elections in Venezuela was defeated at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council last week, and Maduro remains in control.
Still, Bolton told Tapper that the US is not afraid to go it alone. “In this administration we’re not afraid to use the phrase ‘Monroe Doctrine,’” he said. “This is a country in our hemisphere and it’s been the objective of American presidents going back to Ronald Reagan to have a completely Democratic hemisphere.”