Above photo: Pedro Rances Mattey / Anadolu.
Amid the ongoing threats to Venezuela from the United States, which maintains its military deployment in the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro assured that Caracas will respond if Washington attacks and stressed that work will continue despite external pressures and threats.
“If the gringos threaten, we will work harder; if the gringos attack, we will respond; but nothing will stop the work; the work for the homeland, the work for the health of the people, for education, for the life of the people,” he said during the inauguration of the Dr. Julio Criollo Rivas Pediatric Hospital in Caracas.
At the same time, he rejected attempts at international interference, pointing out that a president is elected to govern his country. “We govern from the people, with the people, and for the people. Our main interest is not to try to rule the world,” he added.
- In August, international media reported on the U.S. military deployment in the southern Caribbean, supposedly to confront drug cartels. At the same time, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest on the unsubstantiated charge of leading a “drug trafficking cartel.”
- So far, Washington claims to have bombed five ships in the Caribbean, leaving at least 21 people dead. In the region, Colombia has called these deaths “murders.” Similarly, international organizations such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have stated that “people should not die for using, selling, or consuming drugs.”
- Following the US military deployment, the foreign ministers of blocs such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) have called for respect for the region’s declaration as a zone of peace.
- Maduro maintains that his country is the victim of “a multifaceted war” orchestrated by the US with a view to bringing about “regime change.”
