An in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions ex­pert says the Gov­ern­ment is wait­ing for clear­er di­rec­tion from the Unit­ed States be­fore de­ter­min­ing its next steps on Venezuela, avoid­ing state­ments that could be read as di­verg­ing from Wash­ing­ton’s pol­i­cy.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions lec­tur­er Dr Michał Paw­ińs­ki re­ject­ed sug­ges­tions that the Gov­ern­ment has been silent since the Unit­ed States re­moved Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro on Jan­u­ary 3.

He said the Gov­ern­ment’s con­sis­tent align­ment with Wash­ing­ton at mul­ti­lat­er­al fo­rums, such as the Unit­ed Na­tions and Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Amer­i­can States, amounts to a clear state­ment of na­tion­al in­ter­est.