DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to impose an economic embargo on Venezuela in a move designed to force Nicolás Maduro out of office, and the Venezuelan community in Doral is reacting to the ban.
The President wrote a letter to Congress Monday night, calling the embargo necessary in response to Maduro regime.
Eduardo Arias, who is from Venezuela, said, “Maduro is a dictator, so the United States has to make all the effort to get Maduro out of my country.”
The move expands existing sanctions against the Maduro government. Under the total economic embargo, American companies and individuals are banned from doing business with the government, and Venezuelan officials with ties to Maduro are barred from entering the U.S., a move some in South Florida are celebrating.
Maduro has also regularly blocked humanitarian aid from entering the country while thousands go without food and needed medicine.
The Trump administration released a statement saying, “The United States will use every appropriate tool to end Maduro’s hold on Venezuela, support the Venezuelan people’s access to humanitarian assistance, and ensure a democratic transition in Venezuela.”
Tuesday afternoon, opposition leader Juan Guaidó spoke to a crowd in Colombia to support the embargo. He said the move is not against Venezula, but it is against the regime and those who benefit at the expense of Venezuelans.
As the tension between the U.S. and Venezuela rises, some hope other countries step forward.
“I think if everyone would band together, they’d end that misery pretty fast,” said Carlos Gueits, a supporter of the embargo. “Kids in the streets not eating and dying, so anything that we can do to alleviate that, I think, is a good thing. It’s a tool to put pressure on that system to try and change.”
A senior official in Venezuela has called Trump a “gangster” and “an international bandit.”
Maduro has not commented nor responded publicly to the latest move from the U.S. government.
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