"We're with Venezuela all the way, we're doing a lot, and we have a lot planned", Trump said. "America stands with the suffering people of Venezuela and Cuba and Nicaragua".
In February, Trump said the United States may impose new sanctions on purchasers of Venezuelan oil.
The US has been imposing sanctions against Venezuela and its officials in recent years in hitherto fruitless attempts to force its duly elected President Nicolas Maduro to resign. Namely, Washington has limited Caracas' ability to sell crude, one of its most crucial export goods, as the country is struggling to overcome an economic crisis and rampant inflation. The US government has also frozen the US-based assets of the state oil company PDVSA.
The political crisis escalated in Venezuela in late January 2019 when Juan Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, illegally proclaimed himself interim president in a bid to oust re-elected Maduro from power.
Maduro has called Guiado a US puppet, working with Washington to orchestrate a coup in the country so that they can control over Venezuela's natural resources. A number of countries, including Russia, China, and Turkey, have said that they recognize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as the only legitimate president of Venezuela.
