Trump raises specter of imposing 'very profitable' new tariffs on Mexico despite deal breakthrough - Fox News

Even as he again hailed his administration's last-minute, much-heralded deal on Friday with Mexico as a "successful agreement" to address illegal immigration at the southern border, President Trump on Sunday bluntly suggested he might again seek to impose punishing tariffs on Mexico if its cooperation falls short in the future.

The president and other key administration officials also sharply disputed a New York Times report claiming the Friday deal "largely" had been negotiated months ago, and hinted that not all major details of the new arrangement have yet been made public.

In its report, the Times acknowledged that Mexico's pledge to deploy up to 6,000 national guard troops to its southern border with Guatemala "was larger than their previous pledge," and that Mexico's "agreement to accelerate the Migrant Protection Protocols could help reduce what Mr. Trump calls 'catch and release' of migrants in the United States by giving the country a greater ability to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico."

U.S. officials had been working to expand the migrant program, which already has led to the return of about 10,000 people, and said Friday's agreement was a major push in that direction. Nevertheless, the Times, citing unnamed officials from Mexico and the U.S., reported that the concessions already had been hashed out in a more limited form.

WATCH: ACTING DHS SECRETARY DISPUTES NEW YORK TIMES REPORT, SAYS 'ALL OF' THE DEAL IS 'NEW'

"Another false report in the Failing @nytimes," Trump wrote. "We have been trying to get some of these Border Actions for a long time, as have other administrations, but were not able to get them, or get them in full, until our signed agreement with Mexico. Additionally, and for many years Mexico was not being cooperative on the Border in things we had, or didn’t have, and now I have full confidence, especially after speaking to their President yesterday, that they will be very cooperative and want to get the job properly done."

That might have been a reference to discussions about Mexico becoming a "safe third country," which would make it harder for asylum-seekers who pass through the country to claim refuge in the U.S. The idea, which Mexico has long opposed, was discussed during negotiations, but Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has said his country did not agree to it, even as Mexican diplomats said negotiations on the topic will continue.

And, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," insisted "all of it is new," including the agreement to dispatch around 6,000 National Guard troops — a move Mexico has described as an "acceleration."

A Mexican Army soldier near an immigration checkpoint in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, this past Saturday. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

"This is the first time we've heard anything like this kind of number of law enforcement being deployed in Mexico to address migration, not just at the southern border but also on the transportation routes to the northern border and in coordinated patrols in key areas along our southwest border," he said, adding that "people can disagree with the tactics" but that "Mexico came to the table with real proposals" that he said will be effective, if implemented.

The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico headed off a 5 percent tax on all Mexican goods that Trump had threatened to impose starting Monday. The tariffs were set to rise to 15 percent on August 1, 2019, to 20 percent on September 1, 2019, and to 25 percent on October 1, 2019.

But, Trump suggested Sunday, the threat of tariffs is not completely removed.

"Importantly, some things not mentioned in [yesterday's] press release, one in particular, were agreed upon," Trump continued. "That will be announced at the appropriate time. There is now going to be great cooperation between Mexico & the USA, something that didn’t exist for decades. However, if for some unknown reason there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs - But I don’t believe that will be necessary. The Failing @nytimes, & ratings challenged @CNN, will do anything possible to see our Country fail! They are truly The Enemy of the People!"

Democrats seeking to unseat President Trump in 2020, meanwhile, said the Times report was evidence that the administration merely was trying to save face, after Trump suddenly announced his plan for the tariffs less than two weeks ago, on May 30.

Bernie Sanders, for example, derided Trump on Sunday for purportedly picking unnecessary and economically costly fights with a variety of countries.

"I think what the world is tired of and what I am tired of is a president who consistently goes to war, verbal war with our allies, whether it is Mexico, whether it is Canada," Sanders said.

But, in a tense moment on CNN's "State of the Union," Sanders struggled when asked by host Dana Bash why he had called the situation at the southern border a "fake crisis" engineered by the White House.

"Immigration officials have arrested or encountered more than 144,000 migrants at the southern border in May, the highest monthly total in 13 years," Bash began. "Border facilities are dangerously overcrowded; migrants are actually standing on toilets to get space to breathe. How is that not a crisis?"

Sanders responded that the president has been "demonizing" immigrants.

Beto O'Rourke, in a separate interview, conceded only that Trump may have helped accelerate the implementation of a previously existing arrangement.

"I think the president has completely overblown what he purports to have achieved. These are agreements that Mexico had already made and, in some case, months ago," O'Rourke said on ABC News’ "This Week." "They might have accelerated the timetable, but by and large the president achieved nothing except to jeopardize the most important trading relationship that the United States of America has."

Mexican officials, meanwhile, insisted that they would remain engaged in active negotiations with the Trump administration.

"We want to continue to work with the U.S. very closely on the different challenges that we have together, and one urgent one at this moment is immigration," Mexican diplomat Martha Barcena said Sunday.

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She told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the countries' "joint declaration of principles... gives us the base for the road map that we have to follow in the incoming months on immigration and cooperation on asylum issues and development in Central America."

Barcena added that the U.S. wanted to see the number of migrants crossing the border to return to levels seen in 2018.

Fox News' Bret Baier, Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-06-10 08:44:29Z
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Texas border town feels stress of Trump tariff threat against Mexico - NBC News

The change was caused, in part, by another strained trade relationship that developed under the Trump administration. The Port of Los Angeles’s top trading country is China, and the ongoing trade war between the two nations contributed to a 3 percent decline in trade through the California port in the first four months of 2019.

But some here worry that Mexico could eventually lose patience with the Trump administration’s trade tactics, souring the relationship.

The need for trade with Mexico is readily apparent to Ruben Norton, 36, who runs a sporting goods store with his father just blocks from the border checkpoint. Their business, first opened in 1947, is dependent on that cross-border commerce.

“Without Mexico, this place and Laredo is a ghost town,” Norton said, gesturing around his store. “With everything we’re doing, at what point do we jab them enough that Mexico just gives us the middle finger?”

The end of the tariff threat?

Friday’s announcement did not necessarily indicate the end of tensions.

The U.S.-Mexico Joint Declaration states that the two countries would “continue their discussions on the terms of additional understandings to address irregular migrant flows and asylum issues, to be completed and announced within 90 days, if necessary.”

The New York Times reported Saturday that the two neighbors had come to this agreement months ago, leading to allegations the president had manufactured both the crisis and its conclusion.

The president denied the Times report Sunday morning on Twitter.

A White House official confirmed to NBC News that Mexico had already agreed to send troops to its southern border and take U.S. asylum seekers as they wait for their legal cases in the U.S. to proceed, as The Times had reported. In the latest declaration, Mexico will send 600 more soldiers to its southern border and speed up its timeline for other portions of the agreement.

The official noted the White House planned to take a wait-and-see approach, leaving enough room to force another negotiation if the president finds Mexico’s actions ineffective.

The possibility of more negotiations and Trump’s tweet on Sunday that the United States “can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs,” offers little comfort to the people of Laredo, where a level of fear and uncertainty continues to linger despite the relief some felt Friday night after the announcement.

“It’s great we don’t have them starting Monday. That’s awesome,” Gonzalez said. “No one has to worry about Monday. I don’t have to worry about Tuesday and Mexico retaliating. But what happens in 90 days? As we get closer, this administration seems to like to do things at the last minute. Every administration likes to do things different, but how do businesses plan for that? It causes chaos.”

This business community has already felt the squeeze of the Trump administration’s tariffs.

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2019-06-10 08:31:00Z
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Hong Kong's protest movement was on life support. Then the government revived it - CNN

Activists had been jailed, while others faced prosecution over the 2014 demonstrations, which shut down parts of the city for several months. Pro-democracy lawmakers had been kicked out of office on a range of grounds, and numbers at events in their support or calling for political reform were dwindling. Polls found that confidence in the city's future was at a 16-year low.

Then came the extradition bill.

According to organizers, more than a million people took to the streets Sunday to protest a new law which could allow Hong Kongers to be extradited to China on a range of offenses. Critics say the move would make anyone in Hong Kong vulnerable to being grabbed by the Chinese authorities for political reasons or inadvertent business offenses and undermine the city's semi-autonomous legal system.

Though police put the protest size at closer to 250,000, there's little doubt that the march was among the largest since 2003, when 500,000 people protested against a sedition law -- and successfully blocked it.

That protest was motivated, in part, by fears the city would be subject to a China-style rule of law, or rather lack thereof. Fear of China is what drove people to the streets Sunday, too.

Sunday's protest, however, wasn't just remarkable for its size -- but also its demographics. While the Umbrella Movement galvanized Hong Kong's youth and was mainly student-led, it wasn't popular with everyone, and some in the city felt it was disruptive to business.

Opposition to the extradition bill, however, came from a wider cross-section of society.

Lawyers, business people, middle-class, middle-aged first-time protesters were all on the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday.

Their presence showed that while the fight to extend Hong Kong's freedoms may have fizzled, the willingness to battle to protect existing rights is as strong as ever.

Historic protests

The 2003 anti-sedition protests were a defining moment for the city's opposition movement.

The bill could have seen anyone convicted of treason, sedition, secession or subversion against China jailed for life, and -- like Sunday's protest -- attracted huge opposition from many sectors of Hong Kong. The huge march was followed by multiple government resignations, and the bill was dropped, never to be revived.

But while the 2003 protests are remembered as being against the sedition law, they took place on July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from British to Chinese control and an annual day of protests.

Many participants in that protest were also expressing frustration with the government's handling of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and its effect on the economy, as well as a host of minor scandals.

Sunday's march was about one issue alone -- saying no to the extradition bill -- but whether it can repeat the success of the 2003 protest is perhaps up for debate.

During a press conference Monday to address the protests, the city's Chief Executive Carrie Lam defended the bill, saying "additional safeguards" have been made to protect human rights.

"We will make sure that all these additional safeguards are legally binding," she said.

But while it is true the government has watered down some provisions, especially over white collar and tax crimes (in an apparent sop to the business community), it has not slowed the breakneck pace of the legislation, which has bypassed traditional scrutiny by lawmakers.

A second reading is due to take place on Wednesday, and the government has expressed its intention to pass the bill before the summer break.

What happens next?

Protests in 2003 sunk the sedition law and saw multiple officials resign. After the Umbrella Movement then-Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying didn't run for a second term, and the protests profoundly changed the makeup of the pro-democracy camp in Parliament, though several of the most radical lawmakers have since been expelled.

Like Leung, Lam's days may be numbered. While she is unlikely to resign, many observers feel the furor over the extradition bill will put Beijing off appointing her for a second term, preferring a leader untainted by the current political crisis.

While Lam claims it is her initiative, Beijing's role in all of this is unclear, due to the incredibly opaque nature of Chinese politics.

State media in mainland China has come out hard in favor of the extradition bill and the need to pass it quickly, downplaying the protests, coverage of which has been subject to heavy censorship on Chinese social media. A nationalistic state-run tabloid accused "foreign forces" of encouraging the protests.

Both the Beijing and Hong Kong governments may feel they are too far gone with this matter to back down, even in the face of such concerted opposition as seen Sunday -- Lam especially has staked her reputation on the bill.

Pro-democracy lawmakers will do everything they can to derail the bill when debate resumes on Wednesday, with a 1-million-strong mandate to increase their efforts, which have previously dissolved into scuffles in the legislature. But they lack the numbers to actually vote it down, and no pro-government lawmakers have yet said they will vote against the bill, guaranteeing its passage.

In that case, the sight of tens thousands of people in Hong Kong's streets may become familiar once again, courtesy of a protest movement the government has inadvertently reinvigorated.

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2019-06-10 07:42:00Z
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Hong Kong will not withdraw extradition bill: Carrie Lam - Aljazeera.com

Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader said on Monday she had no plans to withdraw a controversial plan to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland, a day after an estimated one million people marched to oppose the proposal.

"This is a very important piece of legislation that will help to uphold justice and also ensure that Hong Kong will fulfil her international obligations in terms of cross-boundary and transnational crimes," Chief Executive Carrie Lam told reporters.

Al Jazeera's Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said: "In the face of the protests, in the face of all her critics, Carrie Lam remains undeterred".

"It's pretty clear she is not going to shelve this controversial bill that has caused so much alarm and agitation in Hong Kong.

"She says the bill is necessary and sensible and that is also the view of the government here in Beijing," Brown said.

Riot police surrounded Hong Kong's parliament on Monday after a mass rally descended into violence as several hundred protesters clashed with police, who responded with pepper spray before the standoff ended.

The protests plunged Hong Kong into a new political crisis, heaping pressure on Lam's administration and her official backers in Beijing. Veteran legislators have called on her to resign.

Organisers claimed more than a million people marched on Sunday against the proposed bill [Anthony Kwan/Getty Images]

The semi-autonomous city's government is pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it does not already have a treaty - including mainland China.

Many in Hong Kong believe Lam to be a puppet of Beijing [Anthony Wallace/AFP] 

The proposals have sparked an outcry and birthed an opposition that unites a wide cross-section of the city, with opponents fearing the law would entangle people in China's opaque and politicised court system.

Protesters believe the proposed law would damage the city's rule of law and put many at risk of extradition to China for political crimes.

Public backlash

Sunday saw huge crowds march in blazing summer heat through the cramped streets of the financial hub's main island in a noisy, colourful demonstration calling on the government to scrap its planned extradition law.

Police estimated the crowd at 240,000, but organisers said more than one million took part in what appeared to be the biggest protest since 2003 - presenting Lam with a major political crisis.

But in her first comments since the mass rallies, Lam said she had no plans to change the current law's wording or withdraw it from the city's legislature.

"The bill will resume its second reading on the 12th June," she said.

Lam denied ignoring the huge public backlash and said her administration had already made major concessions to ensure the city's unique freedoms would be protected and that the bill's human rights safeguards met international standards.

"I and my team have not ignored any views expressed on this very important piece of legislation. We have been listening and listening very attentively," she said.

Demonstrators clash with riot police during the protest [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

But Al Jazeera's Brown said that many people are not convinced by Lam's arguments that there are sufficient safeguards in the new bill to address their concerns.

US and European officials have issued formal warnings, matching international business and human rights lobbies that fear the changes would dent Hong Kong's rule of law.

The former British colony was handed back to Chinese rule in 1997 amid guarantees of autonomy and various freedoms, including a separate legal system, which many diplomats and business leaders believe is the city's strongest remaining asset.

"It's a proposal, or a set of proposals, which strike a terrible blow ... against the rule of law, against Hong Kong's stability and security, against Hong Kong's position as a great international trading hub," the territory's last British Governor, Chris Patten, said on Thursday.

'Foreign forces'

Guards removed damaged barricades from the front of the Legislative Council building during Monday's morning rush hour and cleaning crews washed away protest debris.

All but one protester had been cleared from the area, with residents back to work as normal.

Hong Kong newspaper Mingpao said in an editorial the government should take the protesters seriously and that pushing the legislation forward would exacerbate tensions.

The official China Daily newspaper said in an editorial on Monday that "foreign forces" were trying to hurt China by creating chaos in Hong Kong.

"Any fair-minded person would deem the amendment bill a legitimate, sensible and reasonable piece of legislation that would strengthen Hong Kong's rule of law and deliver justice," the mainland paper said.

Amnesty International said the amended extradition law was a threat to human rights.

"If enacted, this law would extend the ability of the mainland authorities to target critics, human rights activists, journalists, NGO workers and anyone else in Hong Kong, much in the same way they do at home," it said in a statement.

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2019-06-10 06:54:00Z
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Hong Kong march: Hundreds of thousands protest extradition bill - Vox.com

Hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps even more than 1 million — took to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday to protest a government bill that would open the door to criminal extraditions to mainland China.

According to organizers, a total of 1.03 million people took part in the protests; if accurate, that would mean roughly one-seventh of the total population of the autonomous city-state took to the streets. A police spokesperson told Reuters that 240,000 were present at the “peak.”

Organizers said the turnout was the largest since the successful protest against a 2003 plan to amend national security law — 500,000 people attended that rally.

The crowd of protesters was diverse, and reflected the varied interests aligned against the extradition bill; it reportedly included teachers, businesspeople, drivers, students, and even young children.

Hong Kong protesters with child and signs.

Marcio Machado/Getty Images

“This law is dangerous, and not just for activists,” protester Lee Kin-long told the New York Times. “We are not activists. Even as regular citizens, we can’t stand to see China eroding away our freedom.”

Martin Lee, an activist who helped create Hong Kong’s Democratic Party told the Wall Street Journal, “This is the last fight for Hong Kong. The proposal is the most dangerous threat to our freedoms and way of life since the handover.”

College student Karen Chan told the Hong Kong Free Press she wasn’t sure the protests would make a difference, but felt she had to try: “I know it’s difficult to change the mind of the Hong Kong government, but I hope that the protest today can arouse some international concern about it through the power of mass media.”

The protesters carried signs calling for the resignation of Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive who has advocated for the extradition bill, and wore white, to symbolize “light” and “justice.” Some also carried umbrellas, which became a symbol of the Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement during 2014 protests.

Protesters walk through Hong Kong with signs and umbrellas.

Marcio Machado/Getty Images

While the march was mostly peaceful, the BBC reports that pepper spray has been used against some protesters. Just before Monday morning, some violence appeared to erupt near the city’s Legislative Council. Radio Television Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Free Press report that police used pepper spray and batons against protesters gathered near the legislative area. Protesters reportedly struck back by using metal barricades against officers and by throwing bottles. Students are said to have urged the protesters to leave the area as the police set up barriers and called in reinforcements. The midnight Legislative Council protest began as a peaceful sit in.

Physical altercations as police pull a demonstrator to the ground after crowds begin to remove metal barriers surrounding the LegCo complex. pic.twitter.com/wVX7bmS0zS

— Hong Kong Free Press (@HongKongFP) June 9, 2019

Hong Kong was once a British colony; following 150 years of British rule, the United Kingdom handed off control to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. Until 2047, Hong Kong is supposed to be able to govern itself under a policy known as “one country, two systems,” meaning the while Hong Kong is under Chinese sovereignty, it is supposed to be able to retain its own political and legal systems.

As Vox’s Alex Ward reports, the Chinese government has worked limit Hong Kong’s independence: “At China’s direction, the Hong Kong government in recent years has quashed the city’s democratic movement, blocked opposition candidates from running for elected office, and put down nearly all protest movements.”

The pressure Beijing has placed on Hong Kong’s leaders to pass new extradition legislation is the latest development in this ongoing trend.

The legislation, sponsored by Hong Kong’s current pro-Beijing government, would empower officials to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether to extradite wanted criminal suspects to stand trial in China itself. The bill would also require Hong Kong to extradite suspects to jurisdictions it lacks extraditions agreements with.

Government officials have promised the new law would not be used against people facing religious or political persecution, but Hongkongers fear China will not abide by that promise. They also worry citizens will suffer from arbitrary detention and point to allegations Chinese officials use enhanced interrogation techniques as a reason for caution. Businesspeople further fear that should the proposal become law, foreign interest in investment in Hong Kong will cool, and that some companies may even be forced to leave.

The Hong Kong government has partially answered these concerns by raising the threshold for potential extradition to crimes that carry penalties of seven years imprisonment or more, and has said anyone facing the death penalty would not be extradited.

Officials have also said extradition cases must first go through independent local judges, and then finally face approval by Hong Kong’s own chief executive. “We continue to listen to a wide cross-section of views and opinions and remain to open to suggestions on ways to improve the new regime,” a government official said.

In a separate statement, a government spokesperson said despite the protest, the bill will continue its path to becoming law on Wednesday, and said “most of those earlier concerns” expressed by protesters had been satisfied by the amendments made to the bill.

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2019-06-09 17:56:23Z
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Beto and Bernie blast Trump for deal with Mexico and threatening tariffs - Fox News

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke mocked President Trump’s claims of victory in the recent deal reached with Mexico to avert his threatened tariffs – calling the president’s claims “overblown” and arguing that he has hurt the economic ties between Washington and its closest neighbor.

“I think the president has completely overblown what he purports to have achieved. These are agreements that Mexico had already made and, in some case, months ago,” the former congressman from Texas said on ABC’s “This Week.” “They might have accelerated the timetable, but by and large the president achieved nothing except to jeopardize the most important trading relationship that the United States of America has.”

In a series of tweets sent before departing for his golf club in Virginia, Trump defended the deal heading off the 5 percent tax on all Mexican goods that he had threatened to impose Monday, but warned Mexico that, "if for some unknown reason" cooperation fails, "we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs."

TRUMP DEFENDS DEAL WITH MEXICO TO STEM MIGRANT FLOWS, PREVENT TARIFFS

The tweets came amid questions about just how much of the deal — announced with great fanfare Friday — was really new. It included a commitment from Mexico, for instance, to deploy its new National Guard to the country's southern border with Guatemala. Mexico, however, had already intended to do that before Trump's latest threat and had made that clear to U.S. officials.

The U.S. also hailed Mexico's agreement to embrace the expansion of a program implemented earlier this year under which some asylum-seekers are returned to Mexico as they wait out their cases. But U.S. officials had already been working to expand the program, which has already led to the return of about 10,000 to Mexico, without Mexico's public embrace.

Another 2020 candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chastised Trump for using tariffs as a threat and operating a "trade policy based on tweets."

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"I think what the world is tired of and what I am tired of is a president who consistently goes to war, verbal war with our allies, whether it is Mexico, whether it is Canada," he said.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, however, insisted during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that "all of it is new," including the agreement to dispatch around 6,000 National Guard troops — a move Mexico has described as an "acceleration."

"This is the first time we've heard anything like this kind of number of law enforcement being deployed in Mexico to address migration, not just at the southern border but also on the transportation routes to the northern border and in coordinated patrols in key areas along our southwest border," he said, adding that "people can disagree with the tactics" but that "Mexico came to the table with real proposals" that will be effective, if implemented.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2019-06-09 17:43:48Z
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Maduro Reopens Venezuelan Border With Colombia - NPR

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People line up to cross the Simon Bolivar international bridge from San Antonio del Tachira in Venezuela to Cucuta, in Colombia, to buy goods due to supplies shortage in their country. Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro ordered the reopening of the country's border with Colombia on Friday. SCHNEYDER MENDOZA/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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SCHNEYDER MENDOZA/AFP/Getty Images

Crowds of Venezuelans lined up at two international bridges leading to Colombia on Saturday, as the border between the countries opened for the first time in four months.

Thousands of people crossed over, seeking food, medicine and basic supplies. For months, Venezuelans have been dealing with power outages, hyperinflation and increased violence due to the deepening political and economic crises in the country.

In a tweet announcing the move, Venezuela's authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro ordered the reopening of the border with Colombia on Friday and said in Spanish, "We are a people of peace who firmly defend our independence and self-determination."

En ejercicio pleno de nuestra soberanía, he ordenado la apertura de los pasos fronterizos con Colombia en el Estado Táchira, a partir de este sábado #8Jun. Somos un pueblo de paz que defiende firmemente nuestra independencia y autodeterminación.

— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) June 7, 2019

The border with Colombia was closed earlier this year in an attempt by Maduro's government to block opposition and humanitarian groups from delivering foreign aid to Venezuelans in need. Venezuela's borders with Brazil and the island of Aruba were also closed.

Maduro is in a power struggle with opposition leader Juan Guaidó, the head of Venezuela's National Assembly who declared himself Venezuela's president in January. Guaidó has been recognized as Venezuela's rightful head of state by more than 50 countries, including the United States.

Maduro has been able to remain in power in part due to the loyalty of the military and support from powerful allies like China and Russia, the BBC reports.

In April, Guaidó led a failed attempt to oust Maduro. In a recent interview with NPR, he said most military officers do not support Maduro but fear reprisals should they be caught conspiring with the opposition.

"The main factor is fear, and we have to figure out a way to overcome the fear," Guaidó told NPR.

Recently, the two sides have entered into talks in Oslo, Norway, but they have not come away with significant results.

More than 4 million refugees and migrants have fled Venezuela since 2015, the U.N's refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration announced on Friday. In the seven months since November 2018, the number of refugees and migrants increased by 1 million.

Latin American countries are hosting the vast majority of Venezuelans, with Colombia accounting for around 1.3 million and Peru with some 768,000. Chile, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil all are hosting more than 100,000, the U.N report says.

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UNHCR's special envoy Angelina Jolie greets a group of Venezuelan migrants at an United Nations-run camp in Maicao, Colombia, on border with Venezuela. Jolie visited the camp to learn more about the conditions faced by migrants and refugees and raise awareness about their needs. Fernando Vergara/AP hide caption

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Fernando Vergara/AP

Actress and UNHCR's special envoy Angelina Jolie visited another part of the Colombia-Venezuela border to raise awareness about the needs of migrants and refugees on Saturday.

Jolie met with Colombian President Iván Duque and discussed the thousands of Venezuelan children living in Colombia who are at risk of being stateless.

Jolie appealed for more humanity and increased funding for the UNHCR in a statement about her visit:

"This is a life and death situation for millions of Venezuelans. But UNHCR has received only a fraction of the funds it needs, to do even the bare minimum to help them survive. The countries receiving them, like Colombia, are trying to manage an unmanageable situation with insufficient resources. But neither they nor humanitarian actors like UNHCR are getting the funds they need in order to keep the pace with the influx, and yet they still do everything they can."

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2019-06-09 16:48:00Z
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