The United States redoubled yesterday the pressure on the regime of Nicholas Maduro to notice that it is in a "trajectory of collision" with the region and the Venezuelan people, reiterating that the only exit to the crisis is the call to elections.
The chaotic situation of Venezuela was one of the salient themes of the forty-seventh annual conference of the Council of the Americas in the State Department yesterday, one of the meeting places for businessmen and diplomats in Latin America and Washington's political power .
Republican senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, was one of the figures present. He gave a 20-minute speech at the end of lunch. Rubio said that the economic future and national security of the United States are "deeply tied" to the region. He praised the turn to the Argentine market and the fight against drug trafficking, and on the end he left the message about Venezuela.
"In the end, the solution in Venezuela is an election," he said.
Rubio, one of the most active voices in Congress against Maduro, said he was "pleased" to see several countries in the region - he named Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia - to lead the offensive against Maduro. On more than one occasion he insisted that he wanted the change in Venezuela to arrive "at the polls."
After lunch, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Francisco Palmieri, renewed the call for elections.
"We all know that the solution in Venezuela is not less democracy, but more democracy," Palmieri said. "The regime continues in a collision course with its people and the region," he added.