The Venezuelan government repudiated and denounced, before the international community, the “very serious military aggression perpetrated by the United States” against the Venezuelan territory and population, in an official statement, this Saturday (3). The country claims that this is an attempt to impose a colonial war and that the objective is to seize Venezuelan oil and minerals.
“This act constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, especially its articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of States and the prohibition of the use of force. Such aggression threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and places the lives of millions of people at serious risk”, says the statement.
According to the country’s authorities, civil and military locations were hit in the city of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira. Venezuelan diplomacy, says the text, will present the complaints to the United Nations Security Council, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (MNOAL), demanding the condemnation and accountability of the United States government.
Venezuela also reported that, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, it reserves the right to exercise self-defense to protect its people, its territory and its independence.
There is also a call for the population. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack. The people of Venezuela and their Bolivarian National Armed Force, in perfect popular-military-police fusion, are mobilized to guarantee sovereignty and peace.”
Sovereignty and oil
According to the government, the objective of this attack is to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, in particular its oil and minerals, trying to break the nation’s political independence through the use of force. “They will not succeed. After more than two hundred years of independence, the people and their legitimate government remain firm in defending sovereignty and the inalienable right to decide their destiny”, he added.
“The attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a ‘regime change’, in alliance with the fascist oligarchy, will fail like all previous attempts,” says the government.
The statement also mentions that, since 1811, Venezuela has faced and defeated empires. “When, in 1902, foreign powers bombarded our shores, President Cipriano Castro proclaimed: ‘The insolent plant of the foreigner has desecrated the sacred soil of the homeland.’ Today, with the morals of Bolívar, Miranda and our liberators, the Venezuelan people rise again to defend their independence in the face of imperial aggression.”
The document ends with a quote from former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez: “In the face of any circumstance of new difficulties, whatever they may be, the response of all patriots… is unity, struggle, battle and victory.”
