US pulls last embassy staff from Venezuela as President Maduro blames power blackout on Donald Trump plot

The United States has said it will withdraw all remaining diplomatic staff from Venezuela as Nicolas Maduro accused US President Donald Trump of masterminding a plot to force him from power by crippling the country’s electricity system.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the decision to vacate the US embassy in the crisis-stricken country’s capital, Caracas, late on Monday.

“This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in #Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of US diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on US policy,” Pompeo tweeted.

On January 24 the US State Department ordered all non-emergency government employees to depart Venezuela, where Maduro is facing a stiff challenge for power from opposition leader Juan Guaido amid an acute economic crisis.

That day, the department also urged Americans living in Venezuela to consider leaving.

The U.S. will withdraw all remaining personnel from @usembassyve this week. This decision reflects the deteriorating situation in #Venezuela as well as the conclusion that the presence of U.S. diplomatic staff at the embassy has become a constraint on U.S. policy.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) March 12, 2019

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Pompeo’s announcement came after another day of chaos as power cuts that began Thursday evening continued to cause problems for Venezuelans, leaving them with little power, water and communications.

People converged on a polluted river to fill water bottles in Caracas, and scattered protests erupted in several cities.

Maduro’s political foes and many specialists believe the calamitous nationwide blackout that has yet to be resolved is the result of years of mismanagement, corruption and incompetence.

“We are in the middle of a catastrophe that is not the result of a hurricane, that is not the result of a tsunami,” Guaido told CNN on Sunday.

“It’s the product of the inefficiency, the incapability, the corruption of a regime that doesn’t care about the lives of Venezuelans.”

But in a televised nationwide address on Monday night Maduro pointed the finger of blame at the White House in what critics condemned as a cynical attempt to deflect criticism of his regime’s responsibility.

“The United States’ imperialist government ordered this attack,” Maduro claimed in his 35-minute speech, only his second significant intervention since the crisis began last week.

“They came with a strategy of war of the kind that only these criminals – who have been to war and have destroyed the people of Iraq, of Libya, of Afghanistan and of Syria – think up.”

Maduro alleged the US had conducted the attack – in league with “puppets and clowns” from the Venezuelan opposition – in order to create “a state of despair, of widespread want and of conflict” that would justify a foreign intervention and Venezuela’s military occupation.

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But Maduro, who inherited Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution after his 2013 death, vowed that the supposed attack on Venezuela’s grid would be thwarted.

“Victory belongs to us,” he declared.

“What you can be certain of is that sooner rather later, in the coming days, we will win this battle definitively … We will win – and we will do it for Venezuela. We will do it for our homeland. We will do it for you … we will do it because of our people’s right to happiness.”

Ominously, he called on Venezuelan citizens and on pro-government paramilitary gangs known as colectivos to resist the “imperialist” onslaught.

“The time has come for active resistance,” he said.

Maduro has been fighting for political survival since January when Guaido declared himself Venezuela’s legitimate leader and was swiftly recognised as interim president by dozens of western nations including the US and Britain.

Pompeo earlier Monday blamed Russia and Cuba for causing Venezuela’s political crisis.

He criticised “Cuban Communist overlords” and the “deeply corrupt ruling class” protecting Maduro. Of Venezuela’s close ties with Russia, Pompeo said “it’s a match made in hell”.

He didn’t single out China, which has loaned Venezuela billions of dollars backed by oil but has been loath to lay out fresh money and has been less vocal in defending Maduro.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Reuters, and Bloomberg