Trump’s failure to receive Venezuela’s opposition leader was a major blunder

Andres Oppenheimer

President Biden’s 30-minute meeting in the White House Monday with Venezuela’s opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia sent a powerful message to Venezuelans at home and the international community just days before a critical juncture in the South American country’s struggle for democracy.

The big mystery is, why hasn’t President-elect Trump received the visiting Venezuelan political leader? Trump could have received Gonzalez Urrutia at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, or at the very least held a Zoom meeting with him.

Gonzalez Urrutia was more than eager to travel to Florida to meet with the incoming U.S. president, opposition sources tell me. A picture of him with Trump, who has long criticized the Biden administration for being too soft on Venezuela’s dictatorship, would have been key to energizing Venezuelans ahead of a potentially historic Jan. 9 opposition rally.

Venezuela’s popular Gonzalez Urrutia backer, Maria Corina Machado, has called for the demonstration to prevent dictator Nicolas Maduro from fraudulently being sworn in for a third, six-year term in office on Jan. 10.

According to opposition voting tallies considered as authentic by the United States and several other countries, Gonzalez Urrutia won Venezuela’s July elections with 67% of the vote, and deserves to be sworn in. The United States, Argentina and other countries have recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela’s president elect.

But at the time of this writing, Trump has failed to receive Gonzalez Urrutia. Instead, the visiting opposition leader only got to meet with Trump’s designated national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and a few Republican legislators from Florida during his stay in Washington.

Gonzalez Urrutia was leaving for Panama on Tuesday, and was planning to fly to the Dominican Republic on Thursday. He says he will try to fly to Venezuela from there on Friday, escorted by more than half a dozen former Latin American presidents. “By whatever means necessary, I’m going to be there” on Jan. 10, González Urrutia said.

While Trump is likely to at least initially harden his stance on Venezuela, and most Venezuelan exiles believe he will, Trump’s failure to personally meet with Gonzalez Urrutia during the visiting opposition leader’s trip to the United States has triggered some anxiety among Venezuela’s opposition leaders.

Not only would a Trump meeting with Gonzalez Urrutia have served as a boost for the opposition ahead of the Jan. 9 rally, but there have been signs that at least some people with access to Trump may be pushing for a deal with Maduro.

Under such a potential agreement, the Venezuelan dictator would admit deported Venezuelan undocumented immigrants — who account for much of the illegal immigration to the United States these days — in exchange for U.S. economic concessions.

Newly elected Trump-backing Sen. Bernie Moreno, (R-Ohio), triggered alarm bells within the Venezuelan opposition last week by declaring that “Trump will work with Maduro, because that’s who will be taking office.” Moreno added that “at the end of the day,” the top U.S. priorities will be stopping the flow of drugs and that Maduro take back all Venezuelan undocumented immigrants.

While Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio, is a hardliner on Venezuela, Trump has also designated Richard Grenell as his presidential envoy for special missions, mentioning Venezuela among his top priorities. During Trump’s first term, Grenell reportedly held a secret meeting in Mexico City in 2020 with Venezuela’s regime, in search of a negotiated solution to Venezuela’s crisis.

In addition, U.S. oil tycoons and bond investors are urging Trump to abandon his first-term policy of “maximum pressure” on Maduro, according to a Nov. 28 report in The Wall Street Journal. It added that oil executives are urging Trump to strike a deal with Venezuela: more U.S. oil concessions in exchange for Venezuelan measures to cut migration.

I find it hard to believe that Trump will throw the Venezuelan opposition under the bus, although I wouldn’t rule it out. But if Trump doesn’t meet with Gonzalez Urrutia before Friday, when the Venezuelan leader is planning to return home despite his almost certain arrest on arrival, the U.S. president elect will have failed to support Venezuela’s opposition at a crucial moment in Venezuela’s history.