The United States is weighing options to limit Russia and Cuba from meddling in Venezuela, perceived as a stumbling block in the pursuit of a solution to the political crisis in the country, a senior State Department official told the Miami Herald.

The United States for now has ruled out holding any negotiations with Nicolás Maduro and instead is focused on how to orchestrate a “dignified exit” for the Venezuelan leader after an opposition uprising and a series of sanctions failed to oust him from power.

Diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving Venezuela's crisis accelerated on Thursday as the government and opposition sent envoys to talks in Norway, though the two sides' mutual mistrust and differences on key issues could prevent any quick solution.

The announcement by the Department of Homeland Security affected a dwindling number of flights between the two countries because U.S. airlines no longer fly to Venezuela.

The United States is calling on all nations "to be prepared to take concrete actions" to respond to repression by President Nicolas Maduro's regime in Venezuela.

Late one night in April, a week before Venezuela's opposition launched its abortive uprising, four men sat on the terrace of the hillside compound in Caracas belonging to the chief justice of the country's Supreme Court. The dim lights of the capital twinkling below them, they sipped Fiji bottled water as they plotted the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro.

When Rafael Jimenez rushed across the Colombian border in February, breaking ranks with the Nicolas Maduro regime, he imagined that within days he'd be marching back the other direction as part of an army of exiles ready to defend the constitution and Venezuela's true president, Juan Guaido. Almost three months later, Jimenez and about 800 other police and military officers are still waiting for their orders.

The Trump administration is taking steps to punish anyone doing business with the Venezuelan defense sector — including foreign entities trying to quell dissent by shutting down the internet. It’s the latest effort by the administration to ratchet up pressure on the Caracas government and oust Nicolas Maduro from power.

Lawyers for the Trump administration maintain there's no U.S. policy to turn away asylum seekers at the Mexican border, notwithstanding allegations that immigration officers bully prospective applicants into believing they can't seek asylum.

Overcrowding at Border Patrol stations in South Texas has become so acute in recent days that U.S. authorities have taken the rare step of using aircraft to relocate immigrants to other areas of the border simply to begin processing them, according to three Homeland Security officials.

The Pentagon will dispatch a Navy hospital ship carrying hundreds of doctors and nurses to South America next month where it will be tasked with treating Venezuelans fleeing that nation’s economic and growing political crises.

As opposition leader Juan Guaidó failed to ignite a military uprising in Venezuela this week, his allies in Washington placed the blame on not only troop loyalty toward President Nicolás Maduro but also the alleged presence of Cuban troops in the country.

Pentagon leaders on Wednesday delivered a message to House lawmakers that U.S. military intervention is possible in Venezuela as the crisis in the South American country intensifies.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Saturday acknowledged errors made in attempting to stir a military uprising, and he did not discard a U.S. military option in Venezuela alongside domestic forces — saying he would take any such offer from Washington to a vote in the country's National Assembly.

Any decision to send ground troops into Venezuela could put Rep. Matt Gaetz’s Florida constituents in harm’s way, and he wants to make sure all of the consequences of military intervention have been soundly evaluated by the White House and Pentagon.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called for the U.S. military to be positioned on the Venezuelan border on Tuesday, hours after Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez declared a “start of the end of the usurpation” with armed soldiers by their side.

When the Trump administration first demanded in January that Venezuela's ruling government step aside and allow the political opposition to take over, hopes were high that the Venezuelan military would quickly change sides and make it happen.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott reiterated his view Friday during a speech in Sarasota that the U.S. military should help deliver aid to Venezuela, a provocative position that risks drawing America soldiers into an armed conflict in the South American nation.

OPINION

Latin America’s far-left regimes support press freedom only when doing so gives them a chance to give the United States a bloody nose. It is this dogged determination to prize hurting the United States above all other values that they have in common with Assange.

The agreement was intended to prevent players from undertaking risky escapes from Cuba, often with paid smugglers, and having to give up their citizenship to play in the United States.