SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE ELLIOTT ABRAMS: Good afternoon.
I would like to express, first of all,
satisfaction with the vote in the Security Council.
The American resolution got nine votes
and would have carried but for the veto by Russia and China,
whereas the Russian resolution got four votes.
And I think that is a good measure
of the support in the Security Council for Interim President
Guaido and for the policy of peaceful political change
and a democratic transition in Venezuela.
I would say this council session was
an improvement over the session on Tuesday
when we had to listen to 35 minutes of falsehoods
and absurdities from the representative of Venezuela.
At this session today, we only had to listen, by my watch,
to 11 minutes.
So that's just one third the number
of ridiculous and false remarks about the situation
in Venezuela.
That's an improvement.
Questions?
PAMELA FAULK: Yes, Mr. Special Representative,
Pamela Faulk from CBS News.
What do you do--
what does the administration do if Juan Guaido, when
he returns, is arrested, detained,
or anything bad happens to him?
And what next, since the Security Council
is obviously stalemated on this?
Thank you.
REPRESENTATIVE ABRAMS: I spoke Tuesday
about the question of Interim President Guaido's safety
and mentioned it again today.
One has to ask the question why the regime had not arrested him
before he left the country to go to Bogota.
And I think the answer to that is their fear
of the popular reaction.
I think that's probably the greatest
restraint on the regime.
There is also the global reaction.
And I believe you would see a very considerable reaction
around the world if they detain or otherwise harm
Interim President Guaido.
I hope that's enough of a restraint on their conduct.
Our policy is to continue with what we're doing.
As I noted, we delivered more humanitarian aid today.
We will continue to try to get it in.
We also announced more sanctions this week,
and there will be more after that.
We will continue to put economic,
political, and diplomatic pressure on the regime.
And we think the internal situation in Venezuela
is really untenable.
The only question is are we talking about a matter
of days or weeks or months.
And we hope it's as little time as possible.
Because when the situation changes,
that's when the Venezuelan people
will begin to benefit, first of all, from liberty,
but secondly, from direct economic improvement.
WOMAN: Take it to the General Assembly.
REPRESENTATIVE ABRAMS: We'll see what side
we think of what happened today and what happens next week.
And when we come back to the UN, it's
something we'll think about.
REPORTER: Hi.
David [INAUDIBLE] from Bloomberg News.
To what degree are you concerned that this instability
will spill over in a fragile situation in Colombia?
And how vulnerable is Colombia to seeing more instability
there?
REPRESENTATIVE ABRAMS: Well, it is spilling over.
We've seen it.
We've seen people killed on both the Brazilian and Colombian
borders.
We've also seen, obviously, very large refugee flows.
And it's our view that if the Maduro regime remains in power,
those flows will continue, and indeed will increase.
And there's been a lot of projections
that the 3.5 million Venezuelans who have fled their country
would become 5 million by the end of this calendar year
if the Maduro regime were to last that long, which we doubt.
We are trying to help, and we keep designating more funds
to help refugees that are outside
of Venezuela, particularly the largest number in Colombia.
We think it would be very unwise of the Maduro regime
to create further violence and instability.
And we have informed the Colombians,
as I think you know, that to put it colloquially,
we have their back.
REPORTER: [INAUDIBLE] aid into Venezuela
through the [INAUDIBLE], an NGO?
REPRESENTATIVE ABRAMS: Well, we've
thought about a lot of arrangements.
The problem has been that most of those agencies work
with the regime.
And when you hand over humanitarian goods
to the regime, you don't know what's going to happen to them.
I think it's been pretty well documented
that the distribution of food, for example,
through the [INAUDIBLE] program is not neutral
and not based on need.
Some of what's in there is stolen, and much of it
is directed towards supporters of the regime.
And we don't want to strengthen the regime,
and we don't want to have money wasted
on providing humanitarian goods that are
going to be improperly used.
But we're constantly thinking about ways
that this might work.
REPORTER: Mr. Abrams, the Venezuelan ambassador
launched a personal attack on you and on your history.
Do you care to respond?
REPRESENTATIVE ABRAMS: Well, we have an old--
there's an old expression among lawyers in the United States
that if you have the law on your side, you argue the law.
If you have the facts on your side, you argue the facts.
If you have neither the law or the facts, shout.
And that's basically what he's doing.
He's shouting and engaging in personal attacks, which
just gets him away from the subject
of the terrible, terrible impact of this regime on Venezuela
and on the Venezuelan people.
Thanks.