AP EXCLUSIVE: A Venezuelan general wanted to bring his 3-year-old son to the U.S. for brain surgery. The Trump administration denied the request.
FILE - In this April 13, 2019 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, speaks flanked by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, right, and Gen. Ivan Hernandez, second from right, head of both the presidential guard and military counterintelligence in Caracas, Venezuela. The Associated Press has learned that at least twice since 2016, the U.S.
It might also have been one of several missed opportunities to curry favor with Venezuela’s normally impenetrable armed forces. “I am told the document is long —15 points, I think — and it talks of guarantees for the military, for a dignified exit for Maduro, and Guaidó as interim president,” he told Venezuelan online TV network VPItv.
For years, U.S. officials tried to identify ways to engage the military, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela. But after Hugo Chavez’s thorough scrubbing of U.S. influence in the armed forces, opportunities were limited.A letter addressed to the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela from Boston Children’s Hospital states that Hernandez’s son had been authorized for surgery on March 14, 2017, for which the family had made a $150,000 deposit.
Further, for almost two decades of socialist rule and until summer 2017, when the Trump administration toughened its stance in response to Maduro’s crackdown on protests, regime change hadn’t been the U.S. policy goal. So White House officials didn’t want to be seen as encouraging a barracks revolt and were wary of interacting with officials facing U.S. investigations for drug trafficking or corruption.
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