Has The United States Created "An Enormous Coalition" Against Cuba And Venezuela? The Data Does Not Support The Statement

11/24/2020 07:51 PM EST

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State
Via Teleconference
Interview With Bret Baier of Fox News Special Report

QUESTION:  The defense secretary you worked alongside wrote an opinion editorial, or in part wrote it, former Secretary James Mattis saying this: “In practice, ‘America first’ has meant America alone.  That has damaged the country’s ability to address problems before they reach U.S. territory and has thus compounded the danger emergent threats pose.”  That’s Jim Mattis.  Your thoughts? 

SECRETARY POMPEO:  I have a lot of respect for Jim, but he’s just dead wrong on that.  “America first” has been at its heart a recognition that when America is secure at home, when America does good things for our own economy and for our own prosperity, that America will be a force for good all around the region, and that indeed, we can’t deliver security, increased security around the world, when America is not secure. I take great umbrage at the (inaudible) it’s been America alone.  And I would tell you that our Japanese colleagues, our South Korean colleagues, our Indian colleagues, our Australian colleagues all know that the pivot to Asia was a joke, but that the United States under President Trump actually delivered real benefits to them. [BOLD added]  And whether it was the work that we’ve done to build out an enormous coalition to go after the socialist Maduro, to go after the Cubans, these are real coalitions, real things that work.  It wasn’t America alone.  It was us doing it with our friends and allies based on shared interests and a reality that recognized central facts about what is and not pretending that things are as we would like them to be. 

Background On “Enormous Coalition” 

President [Nicolas] Maduro was re-elected in 2018.  The election result was and remains disputed and approximately sixty countries (of 193 member states of the United Nations), which is 30%, do not recognize his legitimacy.  The sixty country list has not increased meaningfully since 2019.  The President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Mr. Juan Guaido, is recognized as Interim President by approximately sixty countries- and that number has not materially increased in nearing two years.  Importantly for Venezuela, China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Turkey do not recognize Mr. Guaido. Some of the sixty “friends and allies” countries referenced by Secretary of State Pompeo report they were then and remain now unwilling participants- those countries with companies engaging with Cuba and Venezuela were threatened with sanctions by the United States. Those reports do not demonstrate a coalition of the willing.   

From media reporting- how the now twenty-seven-member Brussels, Belgium-based European Union (EU) views Venezuela and Belarus:    

31 January 2019- “EU lawmakers voted 439 in favor to 104 against, with 88 abstentions, at a special session in Brussels to recognize Venezuelan congress head Guaido as interim leader.” 

Compared with… 

17 September 2020- “In an overwhelming show of support for pro-democracy protesters in Belarus, the EU assembly voted 574 to 37, with 82 abstentions, to reject the official results of an Aug. 9 presidential election that the West says was rigged.”