Army may overthrow the government in Venezuela, says American Foreign Minister Rex Tillerson

Mexico City/Austin: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated that the people of Venezuela in Latin America are tired of the corrupt and oppressive rule and president Nicholas Maduro’s government may be overthrown by the army. US Secretary of State Tillerson will embark on a tour of Latin America from Friday. The indications given by him ahead of his visit draw attention. Tillerson said there is an increasing influence of Russia and China on the Latin American countries and warned these countries to refrain from that.

US Secretary of State Tillerson reached Mexico on Friday for his six-day Latin American tour. He explained his stance in a program in the state of Texas. ‘The Nicholas Maduro government has failed to meet the expectation of the people in Venezuela. The corrupt and oppressive Maduro rule is trying to fool the people with false dreams,’ criticised Tillerson.

Mentioning that ‘If the country is faced with difficult problems then the army takes over, is the history in Latin American countries’, he indicated that there can be a mutiny by the Venezuelan army to overthrow the government. At the same time, Tillerson clarified that the US will support peaceful transition of power in any country. President Maduro has the option to relinquish power and a friendly country like Cuba will grant him asylum, by stating this Tillerson predicted occurrence of some big happenings.

Along with the Venezuelan change of rule Tillerson also drew attention to the increasing Russian and Chinese influence. ‘China has started getting a foothold in Latin America. Using its financial powers, it is trying to bring the Latin American countries under its influence. However, the cost at which this is achieved is an important point to see. Latin American nations do not require new imperial powers. These powers are seeing only the benefit of the people but the Chinese development model is a thing of the past. This model can not be the future of this continent’ warned the US Secretary of State.

Tillerson warned about the Russian interference by saying ‘Russia is selling arms to the Latin American powers with a dictatorial tendency and there is a need to unite against a country far away and which cannot identify with the fundamental values of the region.’ The US Secretary of State categorised Russia and the US as ‘Tendency to devour someone else’s loot’ and appealed that the Latin American countries should align with the US.

US Secretary of State will be visiting Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Columbia and Jamaica during his six-day visit to Latin America. US president Trump had decided to withdraw for the multinational trade agreement ‘NAFTA’ including Mexico and ‘Trans Pacific Partnership’ which included the Latin American countries. Tillerson’s tour is considered important against this backdrop.