The Washington Post - 27.03.2020

A2 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020

HAPPenIng todAy

For the latest updates all day, visit

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All day | the supreme
court meets for a private
conference to discuss cases. For
developments, visit
washingtonpost.com/politics.

8:30 a.m. | the commerce
department issues personal
income for February, which is
expected to come in at a 0.
percent increase. Visit
washingtonpost.com/business for
details.

10 a.m. | the University of
Michigan releases its consumer
sentiment index for March, which
is expected to slide from the mid-
month estimate of 95.9 down to
91.3. For developments, visit
washingtonpost.com/business.

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teXAs

Five earthquakes

rattle border region

A series of five earthquakes

centered near the same remote

area of West Texas rattled the

region on Thursday.

The temblors registered

between 3.0 and 5.0 Thursday

starting around 4 a.m.,

according to the U.S. Geological

Survey. The epicenter was about

25 miles west of Mentone in

Loving County on the border

with New Mexico. The largest

was a magnitude 5.0 about six

hours later.

That quake could be felt as far

as 150 miles away in El Paso in

Te xas and neighboring Ciudad

Juárez, Mexico.

“It felt like a truck going by,

then you could hear a crack in

the walls,” said Verta Sparks, a

deputy clerk at the Loving

County Sheriff’s Department.

She said the department hadn’t

gotten any calls for service.

industry in the surrounding

Permian Basin.

Geologists say thousands of

earthquakes recorded in recent

years have been linked to the

underground injection of

wastewater from oil and gas

production.

— Associated Press

georgIA

Removal of capsized

cargo ship to continue

A federal judge ruled she will

not halt removal of a capsized

cargo ship along the Georgia

coast while a salvage company

that lost the job to a competitor

sues the U.S. Coast Guard.

The decision by U.S. District

Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood

said an injunction delaying work

to dismantle the South Korean

freighter Golden Ray would be

“averse to the public interest.”

The ship with 4,200 cars still in

its cargo decks has been beached

off St. Simons Island since

September. Experts concluded

the wreck will have to be cut into

pieces.

“A s long as it remains in the

Saint Simons Sound, this

community’s waterways,

coastline, and various important

forms of marine life face an

imminent environmental threat,”

Wood said in her ruling Tuesday.

“Time compounds that threat.”

The salvage firm Donjon-

SMIT filed suit in February after

the Coast Guard allowed the

ship’s owner to replace the

company with a competitor

willing to remove the ship in

larger chunks. By allowing the

switch, the lawsuit said, the

Coast Guard violated the 1990

Oil Pollution Act that requires

shipowners to designate salvage

responders in advance.

The Golden Ray overturned

Sept. 5 soon after leaving the

Port of Brunswick, about 70

miles south of Savannah. The

ship’s 24 crew members were all

successfully rescued.

— Associated Press

dIgest

cHarles rex arbogast/assocIated Press

Two runners get in s ome e xercise Thursday before a Chicago

police officer notifies them that the trails along Lake Michigan are

closed in an effort to limit the spread of covid-19 infections. The city

also closed t he lakefront and a djacent parks and beaches.

BY ANTHONY FAIOLA,

MATT ZAPOTOSKY

AND KAREN DEYOUNG

The Trump administration un-
sealed sweeping indictments
against Venezuelan President
N icolás Maduro and members of
his inner circle on narcoterrorism
charges Thursday, a dramatic esca-
lation in the U.S. campaign to force
the authoritarian socialist from
power.
The administration also an-
nounced a $15 million reward for
information leading to Maduro’s
capture or conviction, an extraor-
dinary bounty on a man still recog-
nized by Russia, China and others
as Venezuela’s rightful leader. The
move effectively turns the 57-year-
old former union leader into an
internationally wanted man, giv-
ing Venezuelans new motivation to
act against him and adding a new
level of risk to any travel he might
attempt beyond the confines of his
power center in Caracas.
Attorney General William P.
Barr announced the indictments of
Maduro and other current and for-
mer Venezuelan officials on charg-
es including money laundering,
drug trafficking and narcoterror-
ism. Barr and other U.S. officials
alleged a detailed conspiracy head-
ed by Maduro that worked with
Colombian guerrillas to transform
Venezuela into a transshipment
point for moving m assive amounts
of cocaine to the United States.
The action, rumored for years,
comes as the U.S.-backed opposi-
tion movement to oust Maduro has
struggled to maintain momentum.
The coronavirus has effectively
halted the opposition rallies that
have been a signature of the move-
ment.
On Thursday, Barr accused Ma-
duro of “deploying cocaine as a
weapon” to undermine the United
States.
“Maduro and the other defen-

dants expressly intended to flood

the United States with cocaine in

order to undermine the health and

well-being of our nation,” Barr said

during a news conference in Wash-

ington.

The charges against Maduro,

brought in indictments in New

York and Florida, carry a mandato-

ry minimum sentence of 50 years

in prison and a maximum of life.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan,

Geoffrey Berman, seemed to con-

cede that U.S. authorities could not

arrest Maduro in Venezuela but

noted that the leader might travel

outside his country.

The charges, described as “a de-

cade” in the making, recalled the

U.S. indictment of Panamanian

strongman Manuel Antonio N orie-

ga in 1988. In that case, President

George H.W. Bush eventually or-

dered U.S. forces to invade and

capture Noriega. But Venezuela’s

far-better-equipped military and

Russian support for Maduro would

complicate any attempt by the

United States to take him into cus-

tody the same way.

The Trump administration

broke diplomatic relations with

Maduro last year and recognized

National Assembly leader Juan

Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate

president. Barr said officials expect

to arrest Maduro, but he declined

to say whether the administration

would entertain a military option,

as it did in Panama.

“ We’re going to explore all op-

tions for getting custody,” B arr said.

“Hopefully, the Venezuelan people

will see what’s going on and will

eventually regain control of their

country.”

Also charged were the head of

Venezuela’s National Constituent

Assembly, a former director of mili-

tary intelligence, a former high-

ranking general, the defense m inis-

ter and the chief justice of the Su-

preme Court. Some of the indicted

officials — notably Defense Minis-

ter Vladimir Padrino López and

Chief Justice Maikel Moreno —

were involved in plotting a military

uprising against Maduro last

spring but failed to live up to secret

pledges to move against the presi-

dent. The charges suggest the Jus-

tice Department was pursuing

their alleged links to narcotraffick-

ing even as U.S. officials endorsed

and encouraged the efforts of the

Venezuelan opposition to solicit

their participation in that plot.

The indictments are a sharp es-

calation in tactics that officials

have gradually ramped up against

Maduro since President Trump en-

tered the White House. A cam-

paign that started with targeted

sanctions on individual Venezue-

lan officials broadened to mea-

sures that have locked the govern-

ment out of the U.S. financial sys-

tem. A U.S. oil embargo imposed

last year has denied Caracas its

single-largest source of hard cur-

rency.

Maduro rejected the U.S. charg-

es Thursday.

“There’s a conspiracy from the

United States and Colombia, and

they’ve given the order of filling

Venezuela with violence,” he said

on Twitter. “A s head of state I’m

obliged to defend peace and stabili-

ty f or all the motherland, under any

circumstances.”

Maduro is scrambling to cope

with an outbreak of the coronavi-

rus as Venezuela’s b roken hospitals

reel from chronic shortages of

medicines, dilapidated equipment

and unsanitary conditions. Barr

suggested the pandemic had de-

layed Thursday’s announcement,

but he said the time was right be-

cause Venezuela’s “people are suf-

fering.”

“They need an effective govern-

ment that cares about the people,”

Barr said. “We think that the best

way to support the Venezuelan

people during this period is to do

all we can to rid the country of this

corrupt cabal.”

I n a January interview with The

Washington Post, Maduro scoffed

at allegations that his government

had established agreements with

Colombian guerrillas engaged in

narcotrafficking and kidnapping

on the Venezuelan-Colombian bor-

der.

“It makes me laugh,” h e said.

Prosecutors allege that Maduro

and other Venezuelan officials

have operated the Cartel do los

Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, since at

least 1999, corrupting Venezuela’s

government institutions so they

could flood the United States with

hundreds of tons of cocaine. They

say the cartel worked with the Rev-

olutionary Armed Forces of Colom-

bia, or FARC, to ship the drug by air

and sea through the Caribbean and

Central America to the United

States. (The FARC, a Marxist guer-

rilla movement that engaged in a

decades-long war against the Co-

lombian government, officially dis-

banded with the Colombian peace

accord of 2016, but more than

2,500 dissident members remain

active.)

Prosecutors allege that Maduro

led the operation, negotiating ship-

ment quantities, directing the car-

tel to provide military-grade weap-

ons to the FARC and coordinating

with officials in other countries to

facilitate the drug trafficking.

Barr said the Maduro govern-

ment is “awash in corruption and

criminality.”

“While the Venezuelan people

suffer, this cabal l ines their pockets

with drug money and the proceeds

of their corruption,” B arr said.

U.S. officials and Venezuelan op-

position leaders have sought dia-

logue with members of Maduro’s

inner circle in an attempt to strip

away o r at l east weaken his internal

support. By targeting several mem-

bers of that circle, the administra-

tion could push them to close ranks

around Maduro, complicating ef-

forts to isolate him.

The indictments appear to con-

flict with long-standing adminis-

tration policy toward Maduro. For

most of the past year, administra-

tion officials repeatedly empha-

sized their desire for Maduro to

leave Venezuela for exile, where

they pledged not to pursue him.

“This is not about revenge,” one

senior official said last year. “We

would be happy to pay the airfare.”

By reducing the likelihood of a

negotiated settlement, they could

be putting Maduro in a position

where he has little left t o lose — a nd

could increase pressure on Guaidó,

who has enjoyed a level of protec-

tion under U.S. patronage.

In w hat appeared to be a retalia-

tory move, Maduro’s attorney gen-

eral on Thursday announced an

investigation into Guaidó and oth-

ers for allegedly plotting a “coup.”

U.S. officials who deal with Vene-

zuela policy say the charges an-

nounced Thursday had more to do

with Justice Department investiga-

tions — and the timing of grand

juries weighing the matter in New

York and Florida — than any

change of position within the ad-

ministration.

“This was not a policy move,”

said one official, who spoke on the

condition of anonymity because

the official was not authorized to

speak publicly on the matter.

Venezuela’s opposition em-

braced the charges. Iván Simono-

vis, Guaidó’s security commission-

er, called the $15 million reward for

Maduro’s capture and conviction,

and $10 million for others, power-

ful incentive for other government

officials to turn against them.

“There is a price for each one of

them,” he told The Post. “You never

know what could happen with

th at.”

One of the Venezuelans charged,

retired Gen. Cliver Alcalá Cor-

dones, posted video clips on Twit-

ter proclaiming his innocence. He

said he was living in Barranquilla,

Colombia, with the full knowledge

of the Colombian government and

had been cooperating for some

time with both Guaidó and Ameri-

can officials.

“I’m at my home,” he said. “I’m

not running.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

ana Vanessa Herrero in caracas

contributed to this report.

U.S. indicts Venezuela’s president on narcoterrorism charges, o≠ers bounty

MatIas delacroIx/assocIated Press

The charges allege Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro headed a conspiracy to move massive amounts of cocaine into the United States.

BY MISSY RYAN

The Trump administration

plans to move forward with a ma-

jor reduction of humanitarian as-

sistance to Yemen effective Friday

in response to restrictions im-

posed on aid by Iranian-linked

Houthi rebels, U.S. officials and

relief workers s aid.

U.S. officials, who spoke on the

condition of anonymity to discuss

a decision that has not been an-

nounced publicly, say the move is

intended to prompt the rebels to

lift measures in areas of Yemen

they control that have made it

di fficult for aid groups t o operate.

B ut aid officials warn the cut

could prove disastrous ahead of

what many fear will be a crippling

coronavirus outbreak in a country

that is already the scene of the

world’s w orst humanitarian c risis.

“There is no question. We are

running out of money,” Lise

Grande, the U.N. humanitarian

coordinator for Yemen, said in an

email f rom Sanaa.

The Houthi rebels, who have

controlled much of Yemen, a re in

the fifth year of a punishing con-

flict with a military coalition led

by Saudi Arabia. The United S tates

provided aerial refueling to coali-

tion jets until 2018 and continues

to share certain intelligence relat-

ed to Yemen.

The U.S. decision caps weeks of

speculation about a possible cut-

off for Yemen and behind-the-

scenes efforts by U.N. officials, aid

workers and diplomats to pres-

sure the Houthis to loosen r ules

that have impaired aid delivery

and, humanitarian officials say,

made it impossible to ensure that

assistance isn’t diverted for mili-

ta ry o r other purposes.

While the Houthi government

rolled back some of the measures

— including a proposed 2 percent

tax on all aid — in response to an

international outcry last month,

other restrictions, including de-

lays in granting travel permits,

remain i n place, aid groups say.

Now, the U.S. Agency for Inter-

national Development (USAID)

says i t has made t he “difficult d eci-

sion” t o cut assistance, with excep-

tions for certain “ lifesaving” a id.

A USAID spokesman said the

reduction would occur in Houthi-

controlled areas because the reb-

els had “failed to demonstrate suf-

ficient progress towards ending

unacceptable interference” in aid

operations.

The spokesman said o perations

would be evaluated as the corona-

virus situation evolves. According

to USAID, at least $73 million out

of a total of $85 million in aid

delivered via nongovernmental

groups in the Houthi-controlled

north will be suspended immedi-

ately. The agency said some aid to

the U nited Nations, i ncluding sup-

port for U.N. f lights and coordinat-

ing activities, would continue, but

it was not immediately clear what

would happen to food assistance

channeled through t he United Na-

tions. Last year, the United States

provided more than $740 million

for h umanitarian o perations in a ll

of Yemen, a fifth of all humanitari-

an funding for the country, aid

officials s aid.

“Everybody’s ripped up about

this. This goes against the grain of

people’s emotions,” a U.S. official

said. “While the stakes are very

high and we definitely don’t want

to cut off lifesaving assistance, the

pressure needs to continue until

they fall in l ine.”

Officials who have been in dis-

cussions with USAID say the ex-

ceptions are expected to permit

only scant amounts of aid to con-

tinue, including inpatient treat-

ment for malnutrition and medi-

cal care related to a major cholera

outbreak.

If confirmed, that would mean

much of the support to the coun-

try’s battered health sector would

end. Also affected would be assis-

tance to camps where people dis-

placed by fighting live in crowded

conditions; support to water and

sanitation networks; and educa-

tion about health and hygiene,

which is seen as particularly criti-

cal a t this time.

T hough no confirmed covid-

cases have been reported in Ye-

men, the country has a health

system severely degraded by pov-

erty a nd w ar.

In a letter Thursday to Secre-

tary of State Mike Pompeo and

USAID Administrator Mark

Green, four Democratic lawmak-

ers called the Houthi restrictions

unacceptable but urged the ad-

ministration to hold off on a large-

scale reduction in aid.

“Given the U.S. is among the

largest humanitarian donors to

Yemen, abruptly ceasing aid

would exacerbate an already trag-

ic humanitarian crisis,” the law-

makers, i ncluding the c hairmen of

the House Armed Services Com-

mittee and House Foreign Affairs

Committee, wrote.

[email protected]

Proposed cut in aid to Yemen prompts an outcry as virus looms

No major damage or injuries

were immediately reported in

the sparsely populated area.

Loving County has only about

100 residents but is full of truck

traffic serving the oil drilling