By Mark Trevelyan
Dec 11 (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday held a second meeting in 17 days with the Venezuelan ambassador to Russia, at a time of mounting pressure by U.S. President Donald Trump for the removal of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro told Trump in a phone call on November 21 that he was ready to leave Venezuela provided that he and his family had full legal amnesty, sources have told Reuters.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on November 25 that Lukashenko had received the Venezuelan envoy to Moscow that day and told him Maduro was always welcome in Belarus and it was time for him to pay a visit.
On Thursday, Belta said Lukashenko had held a further meeting with the diplomat, Jesus Rafael Salazar Velazquez.
It said Lukashenko had told him, referring to their earlier meeting: “We agreed that you should coordinate certain matters with the Venezuelan leadership, with Nicolas Maduro. We agreed that, after resolving certain issues, you would find time to come to me and meet again so we could make the appropriate decision, which is within our competence. And if necessary, we will then involve the president of Venezuela.”
Reuters requested further comment from Lukashenko’s office on the significance of the meetings, and whether Belarus would be willing to offer sanctuary to Maduro if he stepped down. There was no immediate response.
The Trump administration has said it does not recognise Maduro, in power since 2013, as Venezuela’s legitimate president. He claimed to have won re-election last year in a national ballot dismissed as a sham by the U.S. and other Western governments, which independent observers said the opposition had won overwhelmingly.
In recent months, Trump has intensified pressure on Venezuela, not least with a massive military build-up in the Caribbean.
In an interview with Politico this week, he said Maduro’s “days are numbered”, while declining to say whether he would be willing to send U.S. troops into Venezuela.
Lukashenko has friendly ties with Venezuela and has also this year entered a dialogue with the Trump administration, after years of being shunned by Washington and other Western governments over his human rights record and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has started to ease U.S. sanctions on Belarus and last month named a special envoy, John Coale, to pursue further negotiations with Lukashenko on the release of political prisoners.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan)
