Trump’s recolonization is the right description of what has progressively become a plan for a military invasion of Venezuela by the United States: an event never before seen in our history.

It is essential to emphasize that, despite the maneuvers carried out abroad to manufacture a non-existent reality in Venezuela, today our country is at peace and calm. The Constitutional Government of President Nicolás Maduro is, as it has always been, in full and effective control of the national territory. The Venezuelan State’s institutions are functioning normally, in accordance with our Constitution.

It is therefore a dangerous manipulation to think that Venezuela could represent a threat to peace and regional or international security, a deception that was attempted with false information at the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, January 26. We were all witness to what happened there and to the calls made by the vast majority of the international community of our region in favor of respecting the sovereignty and self-determination of our people. The majority of the region supports our territorial integrity and a political solution without foreign interference and without a military invasion.

Trump Imposes His Puppet Dictator

The manufacturing of a case to promote and justify the recolonization of Venezuela through the imposition of a puppet government in our country entered its latest phase with the self-proclamation of a legislator as the alleged president of Venezuela. This action, which is without any basis in our National Constitution, represents an attack against the democratic institutions of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and a usurpation, not just of the constitutional powers of President Maduro, who was reelected for the 2019-2025 term, but also of the will of the Venezuelan people who, through a universal, direct and secrete vote, freely elected him in a vote held on May 20, 2018.

We must say it clearly: on January 23, 2018, there was a coup d’état in Venezuela promote, organized and financed by the government of the United States, with a small group of countries from our region and Europe, as the Wall Street Journal reported on January 26 after an investigation that included information from high level officials from the Trump administration, and as the AP and the New York Times reported in September 2018.

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This involves a new style of coup d’état spurred by the United States, implemented through the political and legal manipulation of Article 233 of the National Constitution. They are ostensibly using the “reestablishment” of democratic order in Venezuela as an excuse to impose a dictatorial government with a concentration of power similar to those employed by the tyrannical regimes our region experienced in the 20th century.

Trump is Turning Venezuela into a Colony

The final objective of this criminal campaign of aggression against our Homeland is the establishment of a façade that will allow the United States to govern directly through their employees, as if they were part of the staff of a foreign oil company. The media then tries to present these men as if they were legitimate representatives of the Venezuelan political opposition, when in reality they are the representatives of the United States in Venezuela. The dictatorship they are imposing does not exist in our Constitution and it is clearly a euphemism for what we all know to be regime change, exactly as it was applied in Libya in 2011 with the National Transitional Council.

In the days prior to the coup d’état, the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; National Security Advisor John Bolton; and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FLO), among other officials, threatened the Venezuelan people, their institutions and their civil and military authorities with the use of violence. Moreover, they made public calls for a military uprising with the deliberate intent to break the chain of command of the Armed Forces, while they reiterated that “all options are on the table”, including the military option, which President Donald Trump himself has threatened on prior occasions, and for which European countries have now announced they are preparing themselves.

Trump and Europe Loot the Riches of the Venezuelan People

Using the same methods of European colonial powers in Africa in the 19th century or the United States in the Americas in the 20th century, Trump has reintroduced the criminal behaviors of looting the riches of conquered peoples, with contempt for international law.

These actions are a demonstration that it is the government of the United States that represents the greatest threat to peace and regional stability of Latin America and the Caribbean. As it is now their custom, they threaten other States through extortion and coercion so that these will recognize a puppet president, thereby carrying out the greatest theft in history, characteristic of a racist and supremacist regime that is only guided by greed and hate. Unfortunately, the European Union, following the worst of its tradition, has joined the looting and the military adventure in Venezuela, as was announced by Portugal’s Defense Minister on January 30, 2019.

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Meanwhile, the first act of the puppet of the United States was to ask for that country to intervene in Venezuela. When has a citizen ever been seen to ask for military action that could provoke so much suffering amongst his own people while asking to be called president? When has a citizen ever been seen to accept the theft of his own people’s resources while asking to be called president?

That same person does not recognize anyone in Venezuela apartment from himself: he ignores the Supreme Court, the National Electoral Council (the same organ through which he was elected as a legislator for the National Assembly in 2015), the Attorney General, the Public Ombudsperson and the Comptroller General. So far, the legislator has proclaimed himself head of two branches of the state: the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch, which lays bare the dictatorial nature of the regime that they are attempting to impose today in Venezuela. The United States justifies all of these actions in the name of freedom, but the only interest is in looting the riches of our people.

At this time the plan for invading Venezuela is carrying out the greatest theft of our people in our history. Trump, with the support of European countries, is appropriating refineries, diplomatic headquarters and other assets and bank accounts in the United States. The United Kingdom is similarly stealing our gold reserves, which is consistent with the British Empire’s grand tradition of looting. It is a return to colonialist exploitation. The arrogance of the British elite, who are so used to looting, leads them to believe they can rob the wealth of all Venezuelans with impunity just because they have become Trump’s minority partners in the Venezuelan colony. What country in the world could think that its monetary reserves have any degree of security in the banks of a former empire built on theft and supported by a racist fanatic?

While he sleeps protected by marines at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas in Caracas, the employee of the United States in Venezuela calls for an uprising of the Armed Forces and a civil rebellion, he asks public officials to ignore the principle of authority, he ratifies diplomatic representatives named by Trump to multilateral bodies and other States, he tries to bribe Venezuelan foreign service offers on social media, he calls for the confiscation of the Venezuelan State’s financial resources and assets abroad, and he accepts the plundering of our sacred territory.

An example is the naming of Venezuela’s supposed representative to the White House, Mr. Carlos Vecchio, who was named by Senator Marco Rubio on Twitter and then ratified by the Naitonal Assembly. This person was previously a lawyer with Exxon Mobil in our country. That is to say, he is literally an employee of a U.S. oil companies in Venezuela. There can be no clearer sign of a colonial government than this.

From External Theft to War for Internal Looting

In light of all of the above and the defeats of the government of the United States in the international arena, both in the Organization of American States (OAS) and in the United Nations Security Council, we must warn of the next step: a military invasion. Using an alleged “humanitarian crisis” or using the discredited “responsibility to protect” as justification, Trump wants to militarily intervene in our sacred national territory. We must prevent Venezuela from becoming the excuse Trump is looking for in order to save his skin as president. We cannot allow war profiteers to satisfy their ambitions and greed using our people as cannon fodder.

International law is the only framework for addressing Venezuelan issues from abroad

The solution for Venezuela’s current circumstances requires, above all, respect for the fundamental principles that are clearly established in the United Nations Charter. This is about respect for sovereignty and the self-determination of people, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, respect for their democratic institutions, and abstention from threats or use of force. We are not asking for anything different than what every other government demands and expects from the international community. Just as it is not Venezuela that should decide the internal affairs of other states, no other country can attempt to determine the future of our homeland, including who is president of our nation. That is why we value the dignified and principled position adopted by our sibling countries of the Caribbean, as well as their efforts in favor of reducing tensions and a political solution to the current situation.

The Government of President Nicolás Maduro, for its part, has expressed and demonstrated its willingness to dialogue. Our tools our politics, respect for the law, reason and diplomacy. We are aware that there are dark interests that wish to lead us to war, as President Trump is intending, and that we are the target of a possible military invasion, which coincides with the calls by the propaganda apparatuses of the United States and Europe.

We understand these risks, even more so after President Trump designated a war criminal, convicted in his own country, named Elliot Abrams in charge of managing the Venezuelan situation. We will never sacrifice our sovereignty to the pressures, the extortion and the conspiracies that the countries that promote this plan for recolonization insist on manufacturing.

We make a respectful call for defending the norms of international law, for reiterating the validity of the purposes and principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter as guarantors of international peace, security and stability. It is our duty to stop this war of recolonization. Venezuela remains firm and in peace; nobody can isolate and divide us. We are in the process of a second liberation of our homeland.