Los Angeles (AFP) - US President Joe Biden reaffirmed support for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido in a phone call Wednesday, despite not including him in this week's major Americas summit in Los Angeles.
Biden also said that the United States was ready to provide incentives to President Nicolas Maduro -- who was also not invited -- if the leftist leader negotiates a compromise with the opposition.
In a statement following Biden's call with Guaido while aboard Air Force One, the White House made clear it still considers him the "interim president" of Venezuela.
Biden "expressed his support for Venezuelan-led negotiations as the best path toward a peaceful restoration of democratic institutions, free and fair elections," the White House statement said.
"President Biden reaffirmed the United States is willing to calibrate sanctions policy as informed by the outcomes of negotiations that empower the Venezuelan people to determine the future of their country."
Former president Donald Trump in 2019 declared Maduro to be illegitimate following elections in which wide irregularities were reported.
Trump ramped up sanctions in a bid to topple Maduro, who presided over a crumbling economy that led millions of Venezuelans to flee.
Most Western and Latin American nations joined suit in recognizing Guaido but some have since privately conceded that Maduro has withstood the pressure.
Biden, hoping to champion democracy, refused to invite Maduro or the leftist leaders of Cuba and Nicaragua on the grounds that they are authoritarians.
The snub led to a boycott of the summit by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, one of the few major Latin American leaders whose government still recognizes Maduro.
Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, said that the decision not to invite Guaido was not part of an attempt to placate Lopez Obrador.
"We thought the best way to lift up our desire to see that Venezuelan-led dialogue and, ultimately, a better future for the Venezuelan people was to focus on the invitations to Venezuelan civil society activists who will participate in various aspects of the summit," Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One.
The State Department unsuccessfully tried to woo Lopez Obrador by inviting a lower-level Cuban official, a plan that fell through as the United States was angered by a crackdown on dissent on the island.
Guaido, in a statement from his office, thanked the United States for support and said that any shift in international pressure needed to achieve "a negotiated exit to the crisis that results in free, fair and verifiable elections."
Raising a major issue for the United States at the summit, Guaido said that "the growing Venezuelan migration will only stop when there is a transition to democracy."
