WASHINGTON: A US envoy warned Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro that he risks a major escalation of international pressure if authorities arrest leaders of the opposition, which Washington believes won July 28 elections.
If opposition leader Maria Corina Machado or presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia were detained, "I think that would be a step that could mobilise the international community even more, even those that might be somewhat sympathetic and don't want to rattle things too much in Venezuela," said Francisco Mora, the US ambassador to the Organisation of American States.
"If Maduro decided to do this, this will bring the international community in ways that he could not imagine, and his efforts to fracture and divide the international community, I think, would have failed wholeheartedly," Mora said at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.
He said that the United States would be expected to move for a stronger resolution at the OAS if Maduro arrested his opponents.
The United States and a number of other countries believe that Gonzalez Urrutia won the election and have pressed authorities to release detailed election data.
Maduro has called for Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado to be locked up and has sought validation of his purported election victory by the Supreme Court, which is seen as friendly to the leftist leader.
After the last election in 2018, the United States under then-president Donald Trump formally recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president and piled sanctions on Venezuela.
But it failed to dislodge Maduro, who maintains a patronage structure and enjoys support from the military as well as Cuba, Russia, and China.
President Joe Biden's administration, while saying Gonzales Urrutia won, has not taken immediate measures and has deferred to diplomacy from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico—Latin America's three most populous nations—all run by leftists who have stopped short of rallying behind Maduro.
Mora said the United States wanted to give the three countries "the kind of space and opportunity to work and find a way forward."
But he insisted that Venezuela was a priority for the United States, where some members of Trump's Republican Party have criticised Biden for not doing more.
"We will not abandon the Venezuelan people," Mora said.
"We will not just simply say we're tired, we've got other things, we're distracted. Let's find a way out of this that does not take into consideration the Venezuelan people and the democratic forces in Venezuela. We will not do that."