The governments of China and Russia issued impassioned statements in support of Nicolás Maduro’s narco-terrorist regime in Venezuela on Wednesday and Thursday, urging President Donald Trump to reconsider his regional actions protecting America’s national security.
The Chinese Communist Party revealed that Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a phone call on Wednesday with his Venezuelan counterpart, Yván Gil, in which he reiterated that “China and Venezuela are strategic partners” and condemned President Trump’s actions to limit the malign influence of Venezuela’s drug-trafficking apparatus as “bullying.” Wang claimed that the entire “international community understands and supports Venezuela’s position.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning on Thursday to the United States government not to target its Latin American ally, claiming that actions to weaken the Maduro regime could lead to a “fatal mistake.”
President Trump has made challenging the Maduro regime a priority of his second term in office. Dictator Nicolás Maduro has presided over a violent, criminal enterprise in the country since the death of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, in 2013. In addition to extensive evidence of human rights abuses against political dissidents, including gruesome torture and killings of children, U.S. officials believe Maduro is one of the leading actors of the Cartel de los Soles (“Cartel of the Suns”), a multinational cocaine trafficking organization run through the Venezuelan military. The U.S. government is offering an active $15 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
Beijing and Moscow weighed in on the situation after President Trump announced on Tuesday that, in response to massive expropriations of American oil assets in Venezuela following the rise of Hugo Chávez, he would impose a blockade on the Venezuelan oil industry.
“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote on his website, Truth Social. “Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”
“It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” Trump claimed, referring to U.S. military activity against illicit Venezuelan economic actions in the Caribbean.
An anonymous report in the New York Times, which has published Maduro as a columnist in the past, reported this week that Maduro is seeking to defy the U.S. blockade by ordering his navy to escort oil tankers, protecting them from American military action. The Venezuelan government has not at press time confirmed any such report, but has called for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the situation.
“The President of the United States of America is violating with impunity and before the entire world our national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” Gil, the Venezuelan foreign ministry, railed in a letter to the Security Council, “sacred principles upon which we have built our nation and which are clearly recognized in the Charter of the United Nations.”
Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry generally, affirmed their support for Venezuela bringing the issue to the United Nations. In his conversation with Gil, Wang, according to the Chinese state-run propaganda newspaper Global Times, opposed what he called American “bullying.”
“Venezuela has the right to independently develop mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries,” Wang reportedly told Gil, “and it is believed that the international community understands and supports Venezuela’s position in defending its own legitimate rights and interests.”
“China opposes all forms of unilateral bullying and supports countries in safeguarding their sovereignty and national dignity,” he added.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun condemned the United States for its measures to protect from Venezuelan state narco-terrorism, framing its nefarious activities as benign sovereign actions.
“China opposes all acts of unilateralism and bullying, and supports countries in defending their sovereignty and national dignity,” Guo declared. “Venezuela has the right to independently develop mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries.”
“We believe the international community can understand and support Venezuela’s stance of protecting its own legitimate rights and interests. China supports Venezuela’s request for holding an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council,” he added.
In Russia, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement hoping that Trump “will come to his senses” and allow Venezuela to continue its drug trafficking and terrorist operations unimpeded in a statement on Thursday.
“Unilateral decisions creating a threat to international shipping are particularly alarming,” the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed. “Hopefully, the Trump administration, known for pursuing a rational and practical policy course, will stop short of making a fatal mistake and refrain from escalating things down a path that may cause unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry urged “normalization” between the Trump administration and the illegitimate Maduro regime, calling for “steps to de-escalate the situation… with respect for international legal norms.”
The comments from Russia on Thursday were significantly more conciliatory than remarks by top spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in late October, when the U.S. military’s “Operation Southern Spear” began targeting drug vessels in the Caribbean. At the time, Zakharova condemned Washington and suggested that Russia would be willing to aid Venezuela in any conflict with America.
“We support the leadership of Venezuela in defending its national sovereignty, taking into account the dynamics of the international & regional situation,” Zakharova said. “We stand ready to respond appropriately to the requests of our partners in light of emerging threats.”
Notably, neither Russia nor China said in public statements whether they would use their resources or military might to support the Maduro regime.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.