Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump has revealed his true motives against the South American country, claiming he stole America’s “oil, land and other assets.”
Maduro said Trump’s claims show that the United States is serious about seeking regime change as well as ownership of Venezuela’s territory and resources. The United States has previously characterized its naval buildup near the country as aimed at combating drug trafficking.
“This is just warmongering and a colonialist sham. We have said it many times, but now everyone sees the truth. The truth has come out,” Maduro said in a speech in Caracas on Wednesday.
“The objective in Venezuela is to impose a regime change that will not last for 47 hours, to impose a puppet government, to hand over the constitution, sovereignty, all wealth and to turn Venezuela into a colony. That will never happen,” he continued.
On Tuesday, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that until Venezuela returns to the United States “the oil, land, and other assets that it previously stole from us,” the military buildup around the country will grow even larger.
President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that Venezuela had illegally stripped it of its “energy rights” and that the United States wanted them back. “We’ve got the land, the oil rights, whatever we had. Maybe the president wasn’t looking, so they took it away. But they’re not going to do it. We want it back. They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. You know, they kicked our company out, so we want it back.”
Venezuela brought its oil sector under state control in the 1970s. Previously, American companies had a much larger presence in the country’s oil fields.
President Trump has repeatedly warned that the United States could soon attack Venezuela, saying countries that traffic drugs to the United States are “targets of attack,” and hinted that neighboring Colombia could be one of them.
In a speech on Wednesday, President Maduro called on Colombia to unite with Venezuela and protect the sovereignty of both countries.
“I call on the ordinary people of Colombia, social movements and political forces, as well as the Colombian military, which I know very well. I call for full union with Venezuela, so that no one dares to touch the sovereignty of both countries,” President Maduro said.
According to the Venezuelan government, President Maduro also condemned President Trump’s comments in a telephone conversation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday.
“President Maduro stressed that such statements pose a direct threat to sovereignty, international law and peace and must be firmly rejected by the United Nations system,” the Venezuelan government said in a statement.
President Maduro has claimed that recent US actions against Venezuela are part of “barbaric diplomacy” and violate the principles of international coexistence.
Later, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office confirmed that the telephone conversation had taken place, saying the secretary-general “reaffirmed the United Nations’ position on the need for member states to respect international law, in particular the United Nations Charter, and to exercise restraint and de-escalate tensions in order to maintain regional stability.”
Earlier, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that Guterres was focused on avoiding further escalation between the US and Venezuela.
“Of course, as always, he believes that any differences must be resolved by peaceful means,” Haq said.
The exchange came a day after President Trump said he would impose a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers sailing through Venezuela.
Asked whether the blockade violates international law, Haq said: “I think we are considering what the applicable law is at this stage and studying the situation, but certainly states parties have to abide by the UN Charter and you can read the UN Charter yourself and see what it means.”
