US President Donald Trump says he wants democracy restored soon in Venezuela and has warned the US may take additional measures to apply pressure on the oil-producing nation.
At a dinner with Latin American leaders on the fringes of the UN General Assembly, Trump said the Venezuelan people were starving and their country was collapsing.
The US, which has applied financial sanctions against Venezuela, is prepared to take additional steps if the Socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro continues on a path to authoritarian rule, he said.
Calling the situation in Venezuela "completely unacceptable," Trump called for a full restoration of democracy and political freedoms, adding: "We want it to happen very soon."
Trump invited Presidents Michel Temer of Brazil, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Juan Carlos Varela of Panama and Argentine Vice President Gabriela Michetti to the dinner.
At least 125 people have been killed in four months of protests against the Maduro government, which has resisted calls to bring forward the presidential election and instead set up a pro-Maduro legislative superbody called a Constituent Assembly that has overruled the country's opposition-led Congress.
Maduro has blamed Venezuela's financial troubles on an alleged "economic war" by domestic opponents and the US.
Santos said earlier they would discuss with Trump ways to exert more pressure on the Maduro government to allow a "hopefully peaceful democratic transition."
"What we all want is for Venezuela to become a democracy again and we are exerting all the pressure we can for that to happen," Santos said in an interview with Bloomberg News Agency.
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