.jpg)
Trump answers a question about striking drug traffickers inside Venezuela
US President Donald Trump has responded to news of
possible strikes on drug traffickers inside Venezuela.
"We'll see what happens in Venezuela,"
Trump told reporters when asked if he was preparing strikes targeting drug cartels in Venezuela. Venezuela is very dangerous - both in terms of drugs and for other reasons. This will depend on the development of events."
The US President
had strongly criticized the Venezuelan government, accusing it of deliberately sending "criminals and inmates from mental institutions" to the United States.
On the other hand
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused
the United States authorities of trying to establish
a puppet regime in
his country with the aim of seizing its natural resources.
For her part
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez announced that President Nicolas Maduro signed a decree authorizing the declaration of a state of emergency in the event that Venezuela is subjected to a military attack by the United States.
Maduro accuses
the United States of trying to plant a puppet regime in Venezuela
Venezuelan President :
Nicolas Maduro accused the United States authorities of trying to establish a puppet regime in his country with the aim of seizing its natural resources.
Maduro said in a television interview:
- An imperialist plan was formulated to change the regime in Venezuela
- by installing a US puppet government and stealing
- the largest oil reserves in the world
the fourth largest
gas reserves internationally, and the largest gold reserves in the world".
Maduro pointed out that the United States has mobilized warships and a nuclear submarine in the Caribbean Sea for these purposes and is fabricating false accusations against Venezuela.
Maduro stressed that
"the United Nations, the European Union, the World Customs Organization, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration have already denied Venezuela's accusations of [drug smuggling]".
The Venezuelan president noted that even in the United States
"no one believes the lies they tell about me and Venezuela".
President Maduro stressed that Washington will not achieve its goal, and that Venezuela will remain "an independent, free and peaceful country".
Maduro noted that his country's armed forces are conducting "Caribbean Sovereignty 200" maneuvers for three days in Venezuelan territorial waters.
He added:
The peoples of the Caribbean and South America have the right to peace
and nothing should violate their sovereignty .
Maduro expressed
his confidence that Venezuela is "a strong state, a strong, united and organized government, as well as a people determined to win under any circumstances".
Earlier
Maduro confirmed that
his country faces the most serious threat of US invasion in a hundred years.
According to Reuters
on August 19
the US Navy deployed three US Navy destroyers off the southern coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea "to carry out operations against drug cartels".
Furthermore
the United States reportedly deployed a nuclear submarine, a missile cruiser, landing craft, and 4,500 military personnel to the region.
Maduro signs
- a decree declaring a state of
- emergency if Venezuela is
- subjected to a US military attack
Venezuelan Vice President
Delcy Rodriguez announced that President Nicolas Maduro signed a decree authorizing the declaration of a state of emergency in the event that Venezuela is subjected to a military attack by the United States.
During a meeting of
the National Council for the Defense of Sovereignty and Peace with members of
the diplomatic corps in Caracas
Rodriguez said
in statements broadcast on Venezuelan state television:
"The decree declaring a state of emergency aims to defend the territorial integrity, sovereignty, independence and vital strategic interests of our Republic".
She explained that
the decree will enter into force immediately if
"the US armed forces dare to launch aggression against Venezuela"
noting that the document gives
- the president exceptional powers
- in accordance with the constitution
- to mobilize the Bolivarian National Armed Forces
throughout the country, and impose military control over infrastructure
public services, the oil and gas sectors, and other industries.
She added that emergency plans include protecting residents, calling in the Popular Defense and Reserve Forces, and securing land, sea and air borders.
Rodriguez accused
the United States of "seeking to seize Venezuela's
natural resources, especially its vast oil reserves"
adding:
The United States imposes unilateral coercive measures on the largest oil
producing countries, but Venezuela has shown strength
and cohesion to
defend the nation, confront pressures, and preserve sovereignty".
Last week
- the US administration rejected a letter sent by President Maduro to
- his counterpart, Donald Trump, in which he called on him to
- hold talks with the aim of calming tensions between the two countries.
In the letter
Maduro denied Washington's claims that his country plays a major role in drug trafficking. He explained that only five percent of the drugs produced in Colombia are smuggled through his country, and that the Venezuelan authorities have thwarted and destroyed 70 percent of them.
In response
White House spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt said Maduro's letter to
Washington "contains a lot of lies," stressing that
the Trump
administration's position on Venezuela "has not changed" and that
the United States still considers Maduro's government "illegitimate."
In previous statements
Levitt said that Trump is "ready to use all elements of American power" to combat drug smuggling in the region, and did not rule out the possibility of "carrying out a military operation against Venezuela if necessary".
This statement came after sending American warships, including a missile cruiser and a nuclear attack submarine, to the coast of the Bolivarian Republic.
Caracas described these steps
as a provocation and an attempt to destabilize the region
and a violation of international agreements on
the demilitarized
and nuclear-weapon-free nature of the Caribbean region.
Maduro denounced what he described as an "imperialist plan to change the regime and steal the country's oil", while his Defense Minister considered what was happening to be an "undeclared war".