CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the Russian foreign minister that Russia’s dispatch of military personnel to Venezuela is increasing tensions there.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino says Pompeo called Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday and said “the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by” while Russia takes steps to support its ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Pompeo’s call came after a Venezuelan official said Russian aircraft arrived in Caracas this weekend as part of ongoing military cooperation. Reports that two Russian air force planes arrived could not be independently confirmed.

The U.S. and dozens of other countries support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who says Maduro’s re-election last year was rigged. Maduro alleges the U.S. and Guaido are plotting a coup. </s> CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the Russian foreign minister that Russia's dispatch of military personnel to Venezuela is increasing tensions there.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino says Pompeo called Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday and said "the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by" while Russia takes steps to support its ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Pompeo's call came after a Venezuelan official said Russian aircraft arrived in Caracas this weekend as part of ongoing military cooperation. Reports that two Russian air force planes arrived could not be independently confirmed.

The U.S. and dozens of other countries support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who says Maduro's re-election last year was rigged. Maduro alleges the U.S. and Guaido are plotting a coup. </s> At U.N., U.S. Urges All Nations to End Venezuela's 'Nightmare'

UNITED NATIONS—The United States urged all nations Saturday to end Venezuela’s “nightmare” and support opposition leader Juan Guaido while Russia accused the Trump administration of attempting “to engineer a coup d’etat” against President Nicolas Maduro — a reflection of the world’s deep divisions over the crisis in the South American country.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council at a meeting called by Washington that it’s beyond time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro’s “illegitimate mafia state” and support Guaido. The young opposition leader has declared himself the country’s interim president, arguing that Maduro’s re-election was fraudulent.

But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Venezuela doesn’t threaten international peace and security and accused “extremist opponents” of Maduro’s legitimate government of choosing “maximum confrontation,” including the artificial creation of a parallel government. He urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, “I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next.”

What has played out in Venezuela and the world’s media between supporters and opponents of the Maduro government played out face-to-face in the chamber of the U.N.’s most powerful body, which has failed to take action on the Venezuelan crisis because of deep divisions. The Security Council’s five veto-wielding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations — France and Britain — joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro Saturday, saying they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido unless Venezuela calls new presidential elections within eight days.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said if there is no announcement of new elections in the next days the 28-nation bloc “will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country’s leadership.”

“Europe is giving us eight days?” he asked the council. “Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It’s almost childlike.”

Arreaza said Venezuela “will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order” and demanded that someone show him where in the country’s constitution it states that an individual can proclaim himself president.

As for possible military action to oust Maduro, Arreaza said, “we will not allow any government or any country to violate our sovereignty, and to give a pretext for Donald Trump to start a war.”

The opposition to Guaido was also reflected in the initial procedural vote on whether the 15-member Security Council should even discuss the crisis in Venezuela, which is not on its official agenda.

The United States barely survived the vote to go ahead with the meeting, receiving the minimum nine “yes” votes from the council’s six Western nations along with Kuwait, Peru and the Dominican Republic. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea joined Russia in voting “no” while Indonesia and Ivory Coast abstained.

Pompeo went after Russia and China, accusing them of trying “to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits … in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years.”

But he saved his sharpest attack for Cuba, saying no country has done more to sustain “the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people.” He said Cuba has sent “security and intelligence thugs” to sustain Maduro’s “illegitimate rule.”

“Now is the time for every other national to pick a side,” Pompeo said. “No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem.”

China’s U.N. Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said his government “firmly opposed” the U.S. accusations and doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

“We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself,” Ma told the council.

Cuba’s U.N. Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez went further, rejecting “the deliberate” and “fake news” cast on the country not only by Pompeo but by Elliot Abrams, the new chief of U.S. policy on Venezuela who sat in the council after the secretary of state left.

Abrams called Venezuela “a satellite of Cuba and Russia” — which the three countries vehemently denied — and said Saturday’s meeting “is not about foreign intervention in Venezuela” but “about the right of Venezuelans to direct their own internal affairs and choose the future of their own country democratically.”

The Security Council meeting came a day after Guaido vowed to remain on the streets until his country has a transitional government, while Maduro dug in and accused his opponents of orchestrating a coup.

In rival press conferences, Guaido urged his followers to stage another mass protest next week, while Maduro pushed his call for dialogue.

The standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

Guaido took a symbolic oath of office Wednesday proclaiming himself the nation’s constitutional leader on grounds that Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent — an allegation supported by the U.S., the European Union and many other nations.

The Trump administration announced it was recognizing the 35-year-old leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly quickly after his oath, leading Maduro to say that he was breaking all diplomatic ties with the United States and expelling U.S. diplomats. Guaido told the Americans to stay.

Pompeo told the Security Council: “Let me be 100 percent clear — President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our people.”

On Saturday, Venezuela’s government backtracked on an earlier 72-hour deadline for U.S. Embassy personnel to leave the country.

Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said it is negotiating the establishment of a U.S. Interests Office and will allow U.S. Embassy personnel to remain in the country while talks take place. It said that talks about an interest section will have a 30-day limit and if no agreement is reached embassy personnel will then have to leave. The Trump administration had refused to obey the directive and Saturday’s decision puts off a potential conflict between both countries.

Recognition of Guaido by the U.S., Venezuela’s biggest trade partner, threatens to heap more misery on the country’s crisis-stricken economy, and a similar move by European nations would complicate matters further.

Directives sent Friday by the State Department to the Federal Reserve will make it harder for Maduro to gain access to the government’s sizable overseas assets, including revenue from oil sales and profits by Houston-based Citgo, a unit of the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

Guaido’s move is the most direct challenge to Maduro’s rule despite years of protests at home and international efforts to isolate the regime amid a growing humanitarian crisis fueled by falling oil prices and government mismanagement.

Maduro is accusing the opposition of working with the U.S. to overthrow him. Though over a dozen nations are recognizing Guaido as president, Maduro still has the support of the military and powerful, longtime allies like Russia and China. He said he is still willing to talk with the opposition.

Both sides attempted dialogue last year, but it fell apart as Maduro pushed forward with an early election that Venezuela’s most popular opposition leaders were barred from running in. Many in the international community condemned that vote and now consider the National Assembly, which Maduro has stripped of its power, the only legitimate institution.

Russia’s Nebenzia, who opposed Saturday’s meeting, said it was useful because it showed Washington that a majority of countries favor Venezuela’s sovereignty, territorial independence, and non-interference in its internal affairs.

“Let’s not escalate tensions around Venezuela,” he said at the end of the council meeting. </s> UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told countries at the United Nations on Saturday to “pick a side” on Venezuela, urging them to back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and calling for free and fair elections as soon as possible.

Pompeo was addressing the 15-member U.N. Security Council, which met at his request after Washington and a string of countries in the region recognized Guaido as head of state and urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

“Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side ... Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem,” Pompeo told the council. “We call on all members of the Security Council to support Venezuela’s democratic transition and interim President Guaido’s role.”

Guaido, who took the helm of the National Assembly on Jan. 5, proclaimed himself interim president on Wednesday though Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013 and has the support of the armed forces, has refused to stand down.

Maduro cruised to re-election in May last year amid low turnout and allegations of vote-buying by the government. The domestic opposition, the United States and right leaning Latin American governments declined to recognize the result of the vote.

Under Maduro, Venezuela has sunk into turmoil with food shortages and daily protests amid an economic and political crisis that has sparked mass emigration and inflation that is seen rising to 10 million percent this year.

Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium all said on Saturday they would recognize Guaido as interim president unless Maduro called fresh elections within eight days.

“Europe is giving us eight days? Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people,” Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told the Security Council. “It’s almost childlike.”

Arreaza said Maduro’s government still hopes to establish communication and dialogue with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. “That offer stands,” he told the council.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the eight day ultimatum “absurd.” Moscow opposes the U.S. efforts and has accused Washington of backing a coup attempt, placing Venezuela at the heart of a growing geopolitical duel.

“This is not about foreign intervention in Venezuela,” former U.S. diplomat Elliott Abrams, who Pompeo named on Friday to lead U.S. efforts on Venezuela, told the council.

Russia failed in a bid to stop Saturday’s Security Council meeting. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea voted with Moscow to block the meeting, while nine countries voted in favor of the meeting. Ivory Coast and Indonesia abstained.

“We strongly condemn those who are pushing the Venezuelan society to the edge of a bloodbath. The U.S. are painting a picture of a confrontation between the Maduro regime and the people of Venezuela. This picture is far from reality,” Nebenzia told the Security Council.

Russia, China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea also blocked a U.S. push for a U.N. Security Council statement expressing full support for Venezuela’s National Assembly as the country’s “only democratically elected institution.”

“China does not interfere in other countries internal affairs. We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself,” said China’s U.N. Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu, referring to the United States.

The United States has signaled it was ready to step up economic measures to try to drive Maduro from power.

Pompeo told reporters on Saturday that he hopes countries “will ensure that they disconnect their financial systems from the Maduro regime and allow assets that belong to the Venezuelan people to go to the rightful governors of that state.” </s> US cautions Russia over military mission in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the Russian foreign minister that Russia's dispatch of military personnel to Venezuela is increasing tensions there.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino says Pompeo called Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday and said "the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by" while Russia takes steps to support its ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Pompeo's call came after a Venezuelan official said Russian aircraft arrived in Caracas this weekend as part of ongoing military cooperation. Reports that two Russian air force planes arrived could not be independently confirmed.

The U.S. and dozens of other countries support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who says Maduro's re-election last year was rigged. Maduro alleges the U.S. and Guaido are plotting a coup. </s> WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) - The United States on Friday signaled it was ready to step up economic measures to try to drive Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power as some U.S. diplomats left the embassy in Caracas and Russia vowed to back its socialist South American ally.

The U.S. Treasury Department stopped short of announcing a freeze on Venezuela’s U.S. assets and accounts, but said it would take steps to ensure commercial transactions were “consistent” with its recognition this week of opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday will urge members of the United Nations Security Council to recognize Guaido. Washington requested the meeting of the 15-member council after a string of countries threw their weight behind Guaido, who heads Venezuela’s congress, and urged Maduro to step down.

Pompeo will be accompanied by former U.S. diplomat Elliott Abrams, who he named on Friday to lead U.S. efforts on Venezuela. Abrams is a neoconservative who has long advocated an activist U.S. role in the world.

Russia opposes the U.S. efforts and has accused Washington of backing a coup attempt, placing Venezuela at the heart of a growing geopolitical duel.

Private military contractors who carry out secret missions for Russia have flown into Venezuela in the past few days to beef up security for Maduro, sources said.

Maduro said he welcomed the U.N. debate. “Thanks, Mike,” he said, tongue in cheek, during a Friday news conference. “We’re going to tell the truth about the articles of the constitution, about the coup.”

Maduro on Wednesday ordered U.S. diplomats out of the country within 72 hours. On Friday, some American diplomats left the U.S. embassy in Caracas in a convoy of vehicles with a police escort en route to the airport, according to a Reuters witness.

U.N. human rights boss Michelle Bachelet called on Friday for an investigation into alleged excessive use of force by Venezuelan security forces against anti-Maduro protesters in recent days, adding that she was “extremely concerned” that the situation could rapidly spiral out of control.

Guaido, who has galvanized Venezuela’s opposition, proclaimed himself interim president on Wednesday during a march of hundreds of thousands in Caracas. He is considering making a request for funds from international institutions including the International Monetary Fund, sources said on Friday.

However, he still has no control over the Venezuelan state and the military, which has so far remained loyal to Maduro despite a deep economic and political crisis that has sparked mass emigration, with inflation forecast to rise to 10 million percent this year.

Guaido has promised future amnesties to military members if they disavow Maduro, asking soldiers on Friday to “put themselves on the side of the constitution.”

Most Latin American nations have joined the United States in supporting Guaido’s claim on the presidency, although Mexico’s new leftist government has said it would not take sides. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday his administration would be willing to mediate.

Guaido said he would reject any negotiations that did not include Maduro’s exit, the setting up of a transition government, and free elections to pick a new president.

“No one wants fake dialogue ... the only thing we want to negotiate is the end of the usurpation,” he told a crowd clustered in a plaza in Caracas’ Chacao district, an opposition stronghold.

To ratchet up pressure on Maduro, who began a second term on Jan. 10 following an election last year widely considered to be a fraud, the United States is seeking to cut off funds for his government and is considering introducing fresh sanctions, including on its vital oil sector.

Maduro warned off any attempt to take control of U.S. refiner Citgo, the country’s primary offshore asset. “It is the property of the Venezuelan people, and we will defend it,” he said.

The Maduro-appointed board of Citgo is preparing a legal strategy to defend itself against any attempts to divert its funds or change its board, sources said.

Oil prices edged higher on Friday as the political turmoil in the OPEC member threatened to tighten the global supply of crude. The U.S. has until now resisted significant oil sanctions because of the impact it would have on Venezuelan citizens already struggling with shortages.

“The oil situation has been an ethical moral dilemma for us,” said U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, the no.2 Democrat in the Senate, in an interview. “Cutting off all trade in oil would be the last step. It would make it even worse for the average person.”

The Trump administration is trying to make sure that any measures to restrict oil revenues to Maduro do not cause spikes in prices that would be felt by U.S. consumers, said Scott Modell, managing director of Rapidan Energy Group, who advises energy clients on geopolitical risks.

“How do they allow Venezuelan oil to continue to flow, while cutting off the flow of money back to Maduro and the government? That’s the general playbook they have been using for Iran, and the one they are trying to adapt to Venezuela now,” Modell said. </s> US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told countries at the United Nations on Saturday to "pick a side" on Venezuela, urging them to back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and calling for free and fair elections as soon as possible.

Pompeo was addressing the 15-member U.N. Security Council, which met at his request after Washington and a string of countries in the region recognized Guaido as head of state and urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

"Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side ... Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo told the council. "We call on all members of the Security Council to support Venezuela's democratic transition and interim President Guaido's role."

Pompeo called Venezuela an "illegitimate mafia state" under Maduro and doubled down on US support for the leader's ouster.

"The United States stands with the Venezuelan people," he said. "We're here to urge all nations to support the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from former President Maduro's illegitimate mafia state."

Guaido, who took the helm of the National Assembly on Jan. 5, proclaimed himself interim president on Wednesday though Maduro, who has led the oil-rich nation since 2013 and has the support of the armed forces, has refused to stand down.

Maduro cruised to re-election in May last year amid low turnout and allegations of vote-buying by the government. The domestic opposition, the United States and right leaning Latin American governments declined to recognize the result of the vote.

Under Maduro, Venezuela has sunk into turmoil with food shortages and daily protests amid an economic and political crisis that has sparked mass emigration and inflation that is seen rising to 10 million percent this year.

Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium all said on Saturday they would recognize Guaido as interim president unless Maduro called fresh elections within eight days.

"Europe is giving us eight days? Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people," Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told the Security Council. "It's almost childlike."

Arreaza said Maduro's government still hopes to establish communication and dialogue with US President Donald Trump's administration. "That offer stands," he told the council.

Read more:Venezuela's 'interim president' is in hiding — despite US backing — and appears to be failing one of his own 3 tests for securing power

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called the eight day ultimatum "absurd." Moscow opposes the US efforts and has accused Washington of backing a coup attempt, placing Venezuela at the heart of a growing geopolitical duel.

"This is not about foreign intervention in Venezuela," former US diplomat Elliott Abrams, who Pompeo named on Friday to lead US efforts on Venezuela, told the council.

Russia failed in a bid to stop Saturday's Security Council meeting. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea voted with Moscow to block the meeting, while nine countries voted in favor of the meeting. Ivory Coast and Indonesia abstained.

"We strongly condemn those who are pushing the Venezuelan society to the edge of a bloodbath. The US are painting a picture of a confrontation between the Maduro regime and the people of Venezuela. This picture is far from reality," Nebenzia told the Security Council.

Russia, China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea also blocked a US push for a U.N. Security Council statement expressing full support for Venezuela's National Assembly as the country's "only democratically elected institution."

"China does not interfere in other countries internal affairs. We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself," said China's U.N. Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu, referring to the United States.

The United States has signaled it was ready to step up economic measures to try to drive Maduro from power.

Pompeo told reporters on Saturday that he hopes countries "will ensure that they disconnect their financial systems from the Maduro regime and allow assets that belong to the Venezuelan people to go to the rightful governors of that state." </s> Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia Monday the United States will not "stand idly by" as Moscow inserts military personnel into Venezuela to support the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

In a phone call with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pompeo denounced the growing Russian military reinforcements as prolonging the political crisis in the South American country.

Pompeo told Lavrov "the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by as Russia exacerbates tensions in Venezuela," the State Department said in a statement.

"The continued insertion of Russian military personnel to support the illegitimate regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela risks prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people who overwhelmingly support interim President Juan Guaido," he said.

Guaido is supported by the United States and most Latin American and European nations but he retains the support of Russia and China, US rivals who have offered political and economic support to him.

Pompeo urged Russia to "cease its unconstructive behavior" and support Guaido. </s> CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) — Opposition leader Juan Guaido has called on the international community to consider “all options” to resolve Venezuela’s crisis, a dramatic escalation in rhetoric that echoes comments from the Trump administration hinting…

CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) — Opposition leader Juan Guaido has called on the international community to consider “all options” to resolve Venezuela’s crisis, a dramatic escalation in rhetoric that echoes comments from the Trump administration hinting at potential U.S. military involvement.

Guaido’s comments late Saturday came after a tumultuous day that saw President Nicolas Maduro’s forces fire tear gas and buckshot on activists trying to deliver humanitarian aid in violent clashes that left two people dead and some 300 injured.

For weeks, the U.S. and regional allies had been amassing emergency food and medical kits on Venezuela’s borders in anticipation of carrying out a “humanitarian avalanche” by land and sea to undermine Maduro’s rule.

With activists failing to penetrate government blockades and deliver the aid, Guaido announced late Saturday that he would escalate his appeal to the international community — beginning with a meeting Monday in Colombia’s capital with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of an emergency summit of leaders of the so-called Lima Group to discuss Venezuela’s crisis.

He said he would urge the international community to keep “all options open” in the fight to restore Venezuela’s democracy, using identical language to that of President Donald Trump, who in his public statements has repeatedly refused to rule out force and reportedly even secretly pressed aides as early as 2017 about the possibility of a military incursion.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also stepped up the belligerent rhetoric, saying on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Maduro’s “days are numbered.”

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who visited the border last week and has Trump’s ear on policy toward Venezuela, tweeted out pictures of anti-American strongmen including Panama’s Manuel Noriega, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi and Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu at the height of their power and then brutal downfall — the not so subtle suggestion being that Maduro himself could suffer a similar fate.

A close Guaido ally, Julio Borges, the exiled leader of congress who is Guaido’s ambassador to the Lima Group, was even more explicit in urging a military option. “We are going to demand an escalation of diplomatic pressure … and the use of force against Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship,” he said Sunday.

It’s a prospect that analysts warn risks fracturing a hard-won coalition of Latin American nations who’ve come together to pressure Maduro’s socialist government. Most Latin American governments, even conservative ones like those in neighboring Colombia and Brazil, are on the record opposing a military solution and would face huge dissent should they back any military action led by the U.S., whose interventions in the region during the Cold War remain an open wound.

“These governments know they would face a huge tide of internal opinion greatly offended by a U.S.-led invasion for historical and political reasons,” said Ivan Briscoe, the Latin America director for the Crisis Group, a Belgium-based think tank.

It also could split what has until been bipartisan support for the Trump administration’s policy toward Venezuela.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, over the weekend warned about a “potential trap being set by Trump.”

“Cheering humanitarian convoys sounds like the right thing to do, but what if it’s not about the aid? What if the real agenda is laying a pretext for war?” Murphy said on Twitter.

At the same time, though polls say Venezuelans overwhelmingly want Maduro to resign, almost an equal number reject the possibility of a foreign invasion to resolve the political impasse.

Resting at the foot of the Simon Bolivar bridge as work crews in Colombia began removing debris left by the unrest, Claudia Aguilar said she would support a military invasion but worries it would lead to more bloodshed.

The 29-year-old pregnant mother of three said she crossed illegally into Colombia on Sunday to buy a bag of rice and pasta for her family after Maduro ordered a partial closure of the border two days earlier.

“We’re with fear, dear God, of what will happen,” she said standing near the dirt trail she took to sneak across the border. “More blood, more deaths. The president of Venezuela does whatever he wants.”

In addition to weakening multilateral pressure against Maduro, analysts say the opposition saber rattling also risks undermining Guaido’s goal of peeling off support from the military, the country’s crucial powerbroker.

The 35-year-old Guaido has won the backing of more than 50 governments around the world since declaring himself interim president at a rally in January, arguing that Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate because some popular opposition candidates were barred from running.

But he’s so far been unable to cause a major rift inside the military, despite repeated appeals and the offer of amnesty to those joining the opposition’s fight for power.

“How many of you national guardsmen have a sick mother? How many have kids in school without food,” he implored Saturday night, standing next to a warehouse where 600 tons of food and medicine have been stockpiled on the Colombian border. “You don’t owe any obedience to a sadist … who celebrates the denial of humanitarian aid the country needs.”

Maduro has deftly courted support from the military since becoming president in 2013, offering top commanders key posts in his cabinet, including the presidency of state-run oil giant PDVSA, the source of virtually all of Venezuela’s dollar earnings.

More than 100 members of the security forces, most of them lower-rank soldiers, deserted and took refuge inside Colombia during Saturday’s unrest, according to migration officials. But none of them was higher ranked than a National Guard major, and there’s been little suggestion any battalion or division commanders are willing to defect despite almost daily calls by Guaido and the U.S.

To be sure, there’s no indication the U.S. is planning a military invasion and Trump has made a habit of threatening friends and foes alike — China, North Korea and Canada among them — only to dial back the rhetoric down the road. Washington still has more diplomatic tools available, including extending oil sanctions to punish non-American entities that conduct business with Maduro’s government in much the way such sanctions strangled communist Cuba for decades.

Still, as early as 2017, Trump reportedly raised the possibility of a U.S. military incursion in Venezuela similar to the 1989 invasion that led to the ouster of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, both in an Oval Office meeting with then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other aides, as well as at a session with leaders of four Latin American allies on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, according to a senior administration official who has since left the White House.

In both cases Trump abandoned the war talk at the urging of his advisers and allies in the region. Prior to the current crisis, there was never any war planning by the military, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the private conversations.

Still, momentum toward a confrontation seems to be building as hopes for a quick crumbling of Maduro’s government fade.

“It acts like a magnet,” said Briscoe of the possibility of a U.S.-led intervention. “As Plan A and B fail, it’s where everyone seems to be going. But the further you move in that direction, you weaken the multilateral approach and reduce the possibility that large parts of the military will turn against Maduro.”

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and AP writer Christine Armario reported in Cucuta, Colombia.

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In an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting called by the United States, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells the representatives of each government in attendance to make it known whether their country will support the disputed presidency of Maduro or his contested political rival Juan Guaidó as the leader of Venezuela.