Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denounced on Monday that eight military ships deployed by the United States with 1,200 missiles and a nuclear submarine are “targeting” the Caribbean country, which he described as an “extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal threat” that he considers “comparable” to the 1962 crisis in Cuba.
“Venezuela is facing the greatest threat that has been seen in our continent in the last 100 years (…) They (the U.S. government) have wanted to move towards what they call maximum pressure, in this case it is military, and in the face of maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for defense,” Nicolás Maduro said in a press conference.
In this sense, he expressed that “a mess has been made” against his country and that “they have opted for the worst mistake, the most extravagant, outlandish, immoral and brutal pressure ever known, only comparable, at the time, with the crisis” of October 1962, in reference to the tension between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, which involved Cuba.
Venezuela tells Celac that U.S. troops are “ready” to “invade” its territory
Venezuela warned this Monday before the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that 4,200 “trained” U.S. troops are “ready and prepared to invade” its territory, and called for the immediate withdrawal of these military personnel and of the eight vessels that, according to Caracas, are deployed near its coasts.
“The United States has concentrated military assets near the Venezuelan coasts, we are talking about eight military vessels that have, as far as we know (…), more than 1,200 missiles on board,” said Foreign Minister Yván Gil during his intervention in the virtual emergency meeting convened on Sunday by the Government of Colombia, which holds the pro tempore presidency of Celac, in view of the U.S. deployment.
The minister, who thanked the Executive of Gustavo Petro for the call, also denounced “the presence in the Caribbean of a nuclear submarine” which, he considered, “violates not only the peace zone” declared in 2014 “but would also be violating” the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco, which declared Latin America and the Caribbean as nuclear-weapon-free zones.
The Chavista official said that the U.S. uses “as an excuse for this unusual and rude deployment” a “totally false story” about “an alleged cartel that they have called the Cartel of the Suns”, an alleged drug trafficking organization designated as terrorist by Washington, which links it to the government of Nicolás Maduro.
“Any military conflict against Venezuela, using a false pretext such as drug trafficking, when we have shown important achievements in this area, would really mean a complete destabilization of the entire region,” he warned.
Gil assured that his country is “a territory free of illicit crops” thanks, he said, to “the fight that has been made” by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces(FANB) and the police forces, as well as to “all the deployment made by the national government with the investment of substantial resources”.
In this sense, he indicated that “only 5%” of “drug trafficking, specifically cocaine trafficking, which leaves the production centers in Colombia and goes to the United States” tries to pass through Venezuelan territory, and “of that 5%, (…) 70% is seized thanks to the operations” of the FANB and the Police.
Therefore, it urged the regional organization to “preserve the zone of peace” and to “condemn and demand the immediate withdrawal of these U.S. military assets” from the Caribbean, in addition to “reaffirming respect” for the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
“We call on the entire Latin American and Caribbean community, the 33 countries that are members of this community, to take a step forward in defense of the peace zone,” said the foreign minister, adding that his nation “is prepared, ready and with all its means available (…) well oiled” to defend itself, according to EFE.
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