The Government of Nicolás Maduro reacted on Thursday to the statements of the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who during his visit to Quito assured that Washington will evaluate the possibility of reinstalling a military base In Ecuador if the December referendum lifts the constitutional prohibition.
During his visit, Rubio defined the country as a “strategic place”, and said that the Trump administration will study “very closely” any formal invitation he receives from Quito.
He Chancellor from Venezuela, Yván Gilhe accused the American official of spitting “lies from the sacred territory of Bolivarianism,” and pointed out that his statements constitute “an offense to the Ecuadorian people and their armed force.”
“What will Ecuador think when he listens to Rubio to propose foreign military bases on his ground, while his president protects a drug business disguised as a politics? Rubio does not attack Venezuela: he attacks the truth, history and dignity of our peoples. And in doing so, he confirms his destiny: that of the failed politician who dries in hatred,” Gil said through his social networks.
The Venezuelan official also described as “irony” that Rubio was shown together with the President Daniel Noboawhom he accused of being a “banana that no longer exports fruits but drugs towards the US and Europe, with the complicity of the DEA (US drug control administration).”
The popular consultation convened by Noboa includes constitutional reforms, including the elimination of the prohibition of installing foreign bases, incorporated in the 2008 Constitution during the Rafael Correa government. This provision forced the United States to close its base in the coastal city of Manta, a strategic point for operations in the South Pacific.
During his speech, Gil also accused Rubio of using Venezuela as a political target, said that the US official “in his eagerness to assault Venezuela, attacks the UN and against all the scientific data that confirms” that the country “is free of illicit crops and fights drug trafficking with exemplary efficiency.”
“That is the Nazi and Gangsterile logic: denying the evidence, inventing enemies and sowing hatred to cover up failures. It makes it nervous, defensive, trying to cover its absolute defeat in the policy of persecution against Latin America,” added the chancellor.
The controversy occurs in the middle of an American military deployment in the Caribbean, near the Venezuelan coasts, which recently attacked a boat that according to Washington transported drugs and took 11 people who died in the confrontation. Affirmation that Caracas describes from an “invention” of the Trump government.
