Maduro says tensions in the region aim to ‘steal oil’ from the country

“The truth is that Venezuela is innocent. And everything that is being done against Venezuela is to justify a war, a change of regime and to rob us of our immense oil wealth, which is the largest oil reserve and the fourth largest gas reserve in the world. Without Venezuela there would be no oil.

The Venezuelan president also said that his country wants peace. “No more threats. No more fascism. Respect for the right to peace of the people of America and the people of the world. No more wars. Union and peace is what we want”, he said.

In his speech, Maduro criticized the United States’ support for dictatorships in Latin America. Citing the 1964 coup in Brazil and other countries such as Chile and Guatemala, Maduro said that “gringo” interventionism does not bring democracy. However, multilateral bodies such as the UN and the OAS pointed to signs of fraud in the last Venezuelan elections.

Understand the tensions between Venezuela and the USA

In recent weeks, tension between Venezuela and the United States has escalated. The two countries already had political disagreements, but speeches and demonstrations of force have become more recurrent.

The United States carried out covert CIA operations and sent military personnel to the region. Since taking office in his second term, Donald Trump has called Venezuela a “narco-terrorist” state and accused, without evidence, Maduro of being the leader of an alleged criminal network.