MIAMI - Vice-President Mike Pence declared Tuesday that Venezuela’s authoritarian leader “must go” as the U.S. Navy launched a hospital ship on a five-month mission to help Latin American countries struggling to absorb migrants from the crisis-wracked country. Pence briefly toured the ship at Miami’s cruise liner terminal ahead of its Wednesday departure to help Venezuelan migrants in countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Florida is home to an estimated 190,000 Venezuelans, many of whom have found common cause with exiles of other socialist governments such as Cuba and Nicaragua. And Nicolas Maduro must go,” Pence said to applause. Carlos Vecchio, ambassador to Washington for Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, thanked Pence at the event, saying the opposition is grateful for international support to help offset the “man-made disaster” created by Maduro.

Source: thestar June 18, 2019 18:54 UTC