Donald Trump to Venezuela's military: 'accept amnesty or lose everything'
US President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to Venezuela's interim President Juan Guaido and delivered a strong rebuke to socialism, in a speech he delivered on Monday in Miami, DW reports.
"A new day is coming in Latin America," Trump said, addressing a lively crowd at Florida International University. The setting was symbolic, as Miami has become a home to a burgeoning community that boasts 100,000 Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans, the largest in the US.
Trump's speech comes at a critical week in the ongoing power struggle between Juan Guaido and acting President Nicolas Maduro. The 35-year-old opposition leader has led a push to bring humanitarian aid into the country on February 23.
The move will serve as a test for the country's military, which has been instructed by Maduro to repel the aid and fortify the border.
Trump urged Venezuela's military to accept Guaido's offer of amnesty and demanded that they allow in the food, medicine and other supplies, which have already arrived at major distribution centers along the border.
A failure to do so, the president said, would have consequences.
"You will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. You'll lose everything," Trump warned.
"We seek a peaceful transition of power but all options are open," he reiterated.
The US president used the opportunity and the receptive audience to deliver a strong condemnation of socialism, saying the ideology was dying.
"Liberty, prosperity and democracy are being reborn" throughout the hemisphere, Trump said. "This will become the first free hemisphere in all of human history," he added.