Donald Trump has appealed to the largest Venezuelan community in the US, seeking to rally support for the opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

“We seek a peaceful transition of power” in the South American country, he said on Monday, “but all options are open.”

Critics of President Nicolás Maduro say his re-election last year was fraudulent. The US and other countries recognise Guaidó as the country’s rightful leader. Throughout his presidency, Trump has reportedly asked advisers if US military intervention is possible.

Through a months-long crisis in Venezuela, as supplies of food, fuel and medicine have become scarce, the military has largely remained loyal to Maduro. Trump appealed directly to those armed forces.

“We want to restore Venezuelan democracy and we believe the Venezuelan military and its leadership have a vital role to play in the process,” he said.

The president spoke at Florida International University in Miami, introduced by the first lady, Melania Trump. South Florida is home to more than 100,000 Venezuelans and Venezuelan Americans, the largest concentration in the country.

“We’re here to proclaim a new day is coming in Latin America,” Trump said. “In Venezuela and across the western hemisphere, socialism is dying and liberty, prosperity and democracy are being reborn.”

Greeted by repeated chants of “USA! USA!”, he saluted the “determination of millions of everyday Venezuelans, the patriotism of the national assembly and the incredible courage of interim president Juan Guaidó. The people of Venezuela are standing for freedom and democracy and America is right by their side.”

Trump praised Venezuelan dissidents, kissing and bringing to the lectern for brief remarks in Spanish the mother of Oscar Pérez, a rebel helicopter pilot who was killed near Caracas last year after dropping grenades on government buildings.

“I don’t know what she said but I think I know what she said,” Trump said, vowing the woman’s son “will not have died in vain”.

The Venezuelan military has blocked the US from moving tons of humanitarian aid airlifted in recent days to the Colombian border. The shipments have been meant in part to dramatize hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.

“We must work together to end a humanitarian disaster,” Trump said in Miami. “Unfortunately, Dictator Maduro has blocked this lifesaving aid from entering the country,” he said, claiming the leader was happy to see his people starve.

Among a number of mentions of Cuba, the socialist country with which the Obama administration moved to normalise relations, Trump claimed the Venezuelan armed forces were “risking their future, their lives and Venezuela’s future for [Maduro], a man controlled by the Cuban military and protected by a private army of Cuban soldiers”.

“Maduro is not a Venezuelan patriot,” Trump said. “He is a Cuban puppet, that’s what he is.”