Starving Venezuelans May Lack Strength to Continue Anti-Maduro Fight, Lawmakers Warned

Six weeks after Juan Guaido declared himself Venezuela's President, US lawmakers are wrestling with the possibility that momentum behind his political movement could stall and the question of how to respond as the crisis ripples regionwide.

One reason: The Venezuelan people, once residents of Latin America's wealthiest country, may be too weakened by starvation to take to the streets for much longer, one expert told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Latin America.

"People who are starving do not mobilize in the streets," Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center, told the subcommittee on Thursday. "There is actually widespread starvation."...

Eric Farnsworth, a vice president at the Council of the Americas, said the US should "go hard after the assets people have outside Venezuela, those are ill-gotten gains." Farnsworth suggested the US work with other countries to cancel visas for members of the pro-Maduro Venezuelan elite who have parked their families and their money outside of the country.

"Work with countries worldwide to squeeze these people and their families," he said...
 

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