Spanish
Caracas.- Venezuela thanked this Saturday "the support" of the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in the face of what the Nicolás Maduro government calls a "military threat" from the US in the Caribbean, in reference to the naval deployment that this country maintains to, according to Washington, combat drug trafficking, which Caracas considers a lie and denounces as a plan to force a "regime change".
Through Telegram, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, reported on an "important" meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, during which, according to the Chavista official, Guterres "has affirmed that he considers the US military threat in the Caribbean unjustified and unacceptable."
The chancellor, on behalf of President Nicolás Maduro, defended "the sovereignty and peace of Venezuela, a country free of illicit crops and without involvement in the international drug trade".
Gil reiterated that the US military deployment "violates the UN Charter and puts the stability and sovereignty of the entire region at risk."
"The United Nations system must reverse its inaction and not allow another criminal aggression against innocent peoples, such as the current genocide in Palestine, which would only lead to further destruction of the principles of the UN and multilateralism, already convalescing today," added the minister.
This Friday, Gil represented his country at the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly and assured that Venezuela is not "a threat to any nation".
In that sense, he warned that, as Venezuela "cannot be accused of having weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons", today, he said, "vulgar and perverse lies" are being "invented" against it "to justify a millionaire military threat", which he described as "atrocious, extravagant and immoral".
The U.S. has intercepted four vessels allegedly linked to drug trafficking in the Caribbean since August, of which at least three, according to Washington, originated from Venezuela.
Maduro, along with the country's public powers, has been studying since Tuesday a decree that would declare the "state of external commotion throughout the territory".
NBC News reported this Friday, citing two anonymous U.S. officials close to the matter, that the U.S. Army is already preparing plans to attack drug traffickers on Venezuelan territory within a few weeks.
