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Caracas.- Venezuela's Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, assured this Wednesday that his country is prepared for what he called "any prolonged war", in which, he said, "everything" will be used, after referring to the recent actions of the U.S. in the Caribbean Sea, where this country deployed military forces to, according to Washington, combat drug trafficking.
"This town is prepared and, to the surprise of many lackeys, even opposition sectors have joined the initiative to defend the homeland", stated the minister, without mentioning which politicians opposed to Chavismo support the defensive plan activated by President Nicolás Maduro.
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In his weekly program broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), Cabello maintained that when it comes to "defending the homeland, anything goes, except playing the fool to avoid defending it, but anything goes." The also general secretary of the ruling PSUV party reiterated that the US deployment "has nothing to do with drugs" but, he assured, with a plan to provoke "what they call a regime change" and "get out of the Bolivarian revolution", a name adopted by the Venezuelan ruling party for the movement and political project that began Hugo Chávez after his arrival to power, in 1999. "The aggressions and siege against Venezuela have nothing to do with drugs. Venezuela does not produce drugs, does not sow coca, does not sow marijuana, the transit is despicable, but Venezuela has oil, Venezuela has gas, Venezuela has gold, Venezuela has coltan, but Venezuela also has dignity," added Cabello. The White House reiterated this Tuesday its position that Nicolás Maduro's government is "illegitimate" and accused it of trafficking drugs to the U.S.. In a press conference, U.S. Executive spokesperson Karoline Leavitt referred to the recent attack against a boat with 11 alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua. "This sends a clear message to drug traffickers around the world: the president will not tolerate it," Leavitt indicated. In addition, he warned that the amount of drugs "seized on that vessel could have caused the deaths of thousands of Americans." The Venezuelan government considers the information disseminated by the North American country about the attack against the small boat to be an invention, and insists that the U.S. seeks to provoke a political change to gain access to the oil nation's natural resources.
