Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro responded to the US threats, saying Washington wants to turn Venezuela into a colony. He dismissed the Trump administration’s recent threats and actions regarding the oil blockade.
In a televised address on Wednesday, Maduro said the US was trying to replace his government with a puppet regime in the country that “wouldn’t last even two days.” He described the ongoing pressure campaign from the US as warmongering and aimed at seizing Venezuela’s constitution, sovereignty, and natural wealth.
Maduro said, “They want regime change in Venezuela to impose a puppet government that would hand over the constitution, sovereignty, and all our riches and turn the country into a colony. That’s not going to happen – never.”
Maduro made these comments following Washington's seizure of sanctioned oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude oil. US President Donald Trump had said, “Venezuela is surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America.
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It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before – until they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us.” “They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there,” Trump said. “They threw our companies out, and we want them back.”
Meanwhile, Venezuela has increased oil production in the past couple of weeks in a bid to counter US sanctions and attempts at tanker seizures. The Venezuelan leader insisted that the country’s oil trade and exports would continue, arguing that international law and the UN Charter protect freedom of navigation and commerce. “This is not the time for corsairs or piracy,” Maduro said.
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