WASHINGTON, Jan 7 – The United States has a three-step plan for Venezuela that will begin with stabilizing the country after U.S. forces seized leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, overseeing the country’s recovery and finally a transition, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.
“We don’t want it descending into chaos,” said Rubio, speaking after briefing U.S. senators on the Trump administration’s plan for the Latin American country.
“The second phase will be a phase that we call recovery, and that is ensuring that American, Western and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market in a way that’s fair.
“Also, at the same time, begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally within Venezuela, so that the opposition forces can be amnestied and released and from prisons or brought back to the country, and begin to rebuild civil society,” Rubio added. “And then the third phase, of course, will be one of transition.”
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Simon Lewis, Doina Chiacu, Katharine Jackson and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Nia Williams)
