US allies say no Venezuela war

Lima Group rules out intervention

Washington's Latin American allies will not back any invasion of Venezuela to overthrow its elected government.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Néstor Popolizio insisted on Tuesday that the 'Lima Group' of nations – those hostile to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government – was against “military intervention.”
“As the Lima Group we have said that we do not support any military intervention in Venezuela,” Mr Popolizio said at a meeting of the group in the Canadian capital Ottawa.
The prospect of a US-led invasion to back extremist Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guadió's claim to the presidency appeared more likely on Tuesday after White House National Security Advisor John Bolton appeared at a press conference holding a notepad scrawled with “5,000 troops to Colombia.”
But Mr Popolizio insisted “we have no information” about a planned invasion.
At Tuesday's pressconference US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the seizure of state oil firm PDVSA's US subsidiary Citgo and putting its assets at Mr Guadó's disposal.
On Wednesday morning Mr Maduro accused neighbouring Colombia of backing and hosting to a Bay of Pigs-style invasion.
“A group of military deserters has become mercenaries of the Colombian oligarchy and conspired from Colombia to divide the national armed forces at my command,” he said.
The Lima Group was established on August 8 2017 in the Peruvian capital, when foreign ministers and other representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru met to plan the “restoration of democracy” in Venezuela – without inviting its elected government.
Guaido travel ban
On Monday, Venezuelan Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ) President Maikel Moreno put a travel ban on Mr Guadó and froze his accounts pending a criminal probe into his actions.
That move was in defiance of threats from the US of reprisals if the self-declared president's liberty was restricted.
Mr Guadó is a member of the small but militantly putschist Popular Will (VP) party. He was not the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition's candidate in last May's presidential election, which Mr Maduro won by a landslide.
On January 5 this year Mr Guiadó was elected speaker of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which the TSJ has declared to be sitting unconstitutionally since it insisted on swearing in three deputies whose elections in December 2015 were under investigation for possible ballot fraud.

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