08.18.19: Seeking Guarantees

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting today that PSUV vice-president Diosdado Cabello has been meeting in secret with officials from the United States seeking guarantees for himself and other regime officials if they turn again Maduro. News of the secret talks came from “a senior U.S. administration official”, AP said.

According to the AP article:

Diosdado Cabello, who is considered the most-powerful man in Venezuela after Maduro, met last month in Caracas with someone who is in close contact with the Trump administration, said the official. A second meeting is in the works but has not yet taken place.

Aside from being the vice president of the ruling party, Cabello is also the president of Maduro’s Constituent Assembly, and has for years been the second most powerful man in the country after the president.

According to the AP report, the official who spoke to the organization said that Washington is “under no circumstances” considering backing Cabello to replace Maduro. Instead, the talks are aimed at “contributing to the knife fight” that the White House believes is happening behind closed doors at the Miraflores Palace.

The article also claims the following:

Similar contacts exist with other top Venezuelan insiders, the official said, and the U.S. is in a listening mode to hear what it would take for them to betray Maduro and support a transition plan.

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