Spanish
The Venezuelan Chancellor, Yván Gil, intervened this Friday before the United Nations General Assembly (UN), amid the escalation of tensions with the U.S. over the North American country's military escalation in the Caribbean.
The diplomat began his speech by invoking the ideal of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, as a paradigm of the liberation of the Latin American peoples against 300 centuries of Spanish colonialism.
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"We have been a country that learned to fight for its destiny. The 20th century began with a blockade and a coup d'état against the nationalist general Cipriano Castro, financed by oil companies and the US Government. It was a century of harsh disputes between the ideal of a nation that claimed the enjoyment of its wealth for its development and puppet governments that subordinated the country to foreign governments and imperialist interests," he reported. However, the situation of domination, which resulted in plunder and widespread misery, had to change at the end of the last century, when "a project of an independent, just and sovereign nation" was launched, led by Hugo Chávez, who headed a powerful popular movement "to make a peaceful and democratic revolution". "Today, 26 years later, world public opinion and the peoples of the world know very well everything the US power did to overthrow Commander Chávez and end the historical liberation project, backed and successively reaffirmed by the Venezuelan people in 32 elections," he highlighted.Memorial of grievances
In the same order, the Venezuelan chancellor called to remember that the death of the Bolivarian leader brought with it a number of aggressions, intensified during the last decade, "to seize natural resources and produce a regime change". "The aggressions are countless: destabilization actions and conspiracies, including an assassination attempt with drones; the economic war, whose cruelest expression is the 1,042 sanctions that are criminally applied against our oil industry and the productive sectors of the nation, as well as several mercenary incursions," he enumerated. Next, he alluded to the US military deployment in the Caribbean, which he described as a "completely illegal and totally immoral threat, which violates the UN Charter, the rights of Venezuela as a sovereign state and even the laws of the US," while thanking "the overwhelming solidarity of the majority of governments and peoples of the world, especially the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), the BRICS and the Non-Aligned Movement, among others, who have rejected these immoral threats"."Wicked Lies"
On the occasion of exposing the use of lies by the U.S. to "invade" third countries, Gil mentioned the case of Iraq, as well as "the bombing and destruction of Libya" and "the 20-year invasion of Afghanistan". "The aggression of global powers has not ceased for a moment. And so, recently, we saw the peaceful Islamic Republic of Iran being bombed in an underhanded and criminal manner. Today, the aggression is aimed at Venezuela, a peaceful and supportive country," he indicated, referring to the argument that Washington has used to deploy troops and military equipment near the Venezuelan coasts to, supposedly, combat drug cartels. Thus, he maintained, "as Venezuela cannot be accused of having weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons, today they invent vulgar and perverse lies that no one believes –neither in the US, nor in the world–to justify a millionaire, atrocious, extravagant and immoral military threat." "Venezuela today ratifies its Bolivarian vocation of peace, of self-determination and fully assumes – based on the United Nations Charter – its right to defend its sovereignty and to defend the peace of the Caribbean and all of South America," he warned, then stressed that although "the Venezuelan people love peace", they are also ready to defend it". "We are not intimidated by threats, nor lies, nor cannons. The love of freedom runs through our veins," he affirmed.Another possible world
Gil highlighted that, following Chávez's path, "Venezuela is part of the new multipolar world that has been born" and therefore "defends, fights and works for a world of balance, justice and equality, without colonial empires" and promotes regional integration. In that order, he ratified that the Government of Venezuela, headed by President Nicolás Maduro, is committed to "the construction of that world of respect for international law, without hegemonic or warmongering empires", in which the right to peace and the future of the peoples of the South is guaranteed. Thus, he expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine and demanded "an end to the genocide by the Zionist regime of Israel". He also condemned "the attacks against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran" and demanded an end to the "criminal and murderous blockade" imposed by the U.S. on Cuba for more than six decades, as well as the "complete, immediate and unconditional lifting of unilateral coercive measures against the brotherly peoples of Belarus, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Iran and Zimbabwe". Finally, he reaffirmed his support "for President [Vladimir] Putin and the noble Russian people in their fight against neo-Nazism and the militaristic aggression of the West", as well as "for President Xi Jinping's initiatives in favor of building a community of shared destiny", for Argentina's historic struggle for the recovery of the Malvinas Islands, and for the struggle of the Sahrawi and Puerto Rican peoples for their independence. "We reaffirm before the world that Venezuela has not been, is not, nor will it ever be a threat to any nation. Venezuela has been, is and will always be hope in the construction of a new humanity; of a world of equals, without empires, without blackmail, or threats. A world where colonialism, slavery and exploitation disappear forever", he added.Rising Confrontation
Gil's speech occurs days after the US leader, Donald Trump, threatened Caracas during his speech at the UN, after accusing President Nicolás Maduro without evidence of leading an alleged drug trafficking network. This week, the senior official described Washington's stance against Venezuela as a "dangerous" strategy for the entire region, because it attempts to "validate" and "normalize" the use of force in a zone of peace. "There is a message to the international community: it is necessary to stop the use of force against a free country and sovereign," Gil pointed out, who reiterated that there is a "false narrative" behind the deployment ordered by Trump. However, he estimated that "the world understands" that the "real objective" of the U.S. is not the fight against drugs, but the control of Venezuela's vast natural resources through siege and intimidation.- On September 12th, U.S. military forces raided Venezuela's Exclusive Economic Zone and assaulted a fishing vessel. The crew was detained for several hours and Caracas denounces that it was an "illegal" maneuver.
- Maduro maintains that his country is the victim of "a multiform war" orchestrated from the U.S. in order to promote a "regime change", while his American counterpart, Donald Trump, said that he has not held conversations with members of his Government for those purposes.
- In response to the U.S. military movements, Maduro called for the mass enlistment of militiamen. The Bolivarian National Armed Forces launched the 'Independence Plan 200', while the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, announced the carrying out of a "military readiness" exercise on the island of La Orchila, since the country is preparing "for an armed conflict scenario at sea".
