{"id":126147,"date":"2019-08-02T15:27:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T19:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=126147"},"modified":"2019-08-02T15:27:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T19:27:28","slug":"why-is-trump-talking-about-blockading-the-sovereign-nation-of-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=126147","title":{"rendered":"Why is Trump talking about blockading the sovereign nation of Venezuela?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Trump considering &#8216;blockade&#8217; or \u2018quarantine\u2019 of Venezuela<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->RT.com<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_126148\" style=\"width: 990px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5d437d4afc7e93ce6b8b461d.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126148\" class=\"size-full wp-image-126148\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5d437d4afc7e93ce6b8b461d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5d437d4afc7e93ce6b8b461d.jpg 980w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5d437d4afc7e93ce6b8b461d-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5d437d4afc7e93ce6b8b461d-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-126148\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A helicopter takes off from the heliport of the US Navy hospital ship the USNS Comfort, off the coast of Riohacha, Colombia November 27, 2018. \u00a9 REUTERS\/Luisa Gonzalez<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Having slapped several rounds of sanctions on Venezuela, President Donald Trump has said that the next step for the US could be increasing pressure on the South American country by imposing a blockade or quarantine.<\/p>\n<p>Trump made the off-hand remark, which may mean tons of additional hardship for the people of crisis-hit Venezuela, after he was asked by a reporter at the White House lawn if he has been considering a blockade or a quarantine of the Latin American country,\u00a0<em>\u201cgiven the amount of foreign involvement from Russia, China, and Iran.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Yes, I am,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>the US president responded, without elaborating. The curt response prompted the journalist to ask again, only for Trump to triple down:\u00a0<em>\u201cYes, I am. Yes. Yes, I am.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Interesting exchange toward the end of Trump\u2019s remarks with reporters before Maine One departure: Trump says US considering blockade on Venezuela <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3viBcGumrZ\">pic.twitter.com\/3viBcGumrZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobbieGramer\/status\/1157056565624606721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was the first time Trump broached the subject of an actual blockade of Venezuela. Since recognizing self-proclaimed \u2018interim president\u2019 Juan Guaido in January, Washington has unleashed a crackdown on Venezuela\u2019s state-owned oil industry, banking sector and individual officials, while pressuring third countries such as Cuba, who had chosen to stand by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, into withdrawing their support<\/p>\n<p>US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/464613-pompeo-venezuela-must-leave\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<em>\u201cevery foreign power\u201d<\/em>\u00a0to leave Venezuela, so the Venezuelan people can\u00a0<em>\u201ctake back\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the country and rebuild it in a way acceptable for the US. By\u00a0<em>\u201cforeign powers,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Pompeo meant Russia, China, Iran and Cuba, which do not recognize Guaido&#8217;s Washington-invested authority.<\/p>\n<p>Washington has been openly pushing for regime change in Venezuela, but so far Guaido has not prevailed, with a botched coup attempt on April 30 showing a lack of support for him among the military.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/465610-venezuela-us-blockade-trump\/\">https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/465610-venezuela-us-blockade-trump\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump considering &#8216;blockade&#8217; or \u2018quarantine\u2019 of Venezuela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}