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Pompeo Not Told About Trump Envoy’s Anti-Maduro Mission: Report

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Richard Grenell reportedly traveled to Mexico last month in a failed attempt to convince Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro to cede power.

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Sean Gallup/Getty

Trump envoy Richard Grenell reportedly went to Mexico City last month to try to negotiate for Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro to cede power—a trip that was so secret even Secretary of State Michael Pompeo didn’t know about it until later. Bloomberg reports that Grenell’s meeting with Maduro associate Jorge Rodriguez—greenlit by National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien—went nowhere. The U.S. and other countries do not recognize Maduro’s government and consider Juan Guaido to be the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Bloomberg notes that ahead of the Nov. 3 election, the Trump campaign has been trying to cultivate Venezuelan ex-patriates who now live in the key battleground state of Florida.

Read it at Bloomberg

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