Venezuela’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino, said this Sunday (4) that a large part of Nicolas Maduro’s security team was killed “in cold blood” during the attack carried out by the United States, on Saturday (3), which culminated in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. 
“Soldiers and innocent citizens,” Padrino said, without citing specific names or numbers. The statement was made on video, in which the minister appears accompanied by members of the country’s Armed Forces.
Upon reading an official statement, Padrino rejected US intervention in the country and demanded the release of Maduro, who is being held in New York on charges of narco-terrorism.
Understand
On Saturday (3), several explosions were recorded in neighborhoods in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. In amidst military attackorchestrated by the United States, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by elite American forces and taken to New York.
The attack marks a new episode of direct North American interventions in Latin America. The last time the United States invaded a Latin American country was in 1989, in Panama, when they kidnapped then-president Manuel Noriega, accusing him of drug trafficking.
Just as they did with Noriega, the United States accuses Maduro of leading an alleged Venezuelan cartel called De Los Soles, without presenting evidence. Experts in international drug trafficking question the existence of the cartel.
Donald Trump’s government offered a reward of US$50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
For critics, the action is a geopolitical measure to distance Venezuela from global adversaries of the United States, such as China and Russia, in addition to exerting greater control over the country’s oil, which owns the largest proven oil reserves on the planet.
