The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, in an interview with the Spanish journalist, Ignacio Ramonet, regretted that the US government continues aggressive policies against Venezuela, while he assured that relations with the European Union (EU) are stable and are advancing towards normalization.
Maduro pointed out how the United States government has been trapped “in a senseless policy on Venezuela, by supporting non-existent institutions, an” interim presidency”, a “Narnia assembly” that they continue to support, and assured that it is “an or another way” of “blackmail in foreign policy from Florida, from Miami-Dade” that has a lot of impact “in the White House, in the Department of State (of the US)” and assured that “Venezuela is prepared, totally prepared to take steps towards a process of normalization and regularization of diplomatic, consular, and political relations with this government of the United States and with governments that may come.”
The Venezuelan president repudiated the anti-politics that the White House deploys against the Venezuelan people “because, well, one thing are the strategic political differences, of vision that one can have of the world, and another thing is that there are no relations,” he said.
“It is anti-politics that has been imposed on the Trump model. Trump imposed a model on Venezuela: anti-politics. Hitting, hitting, hitting, threatening invasions, extremist sanctions (unilateral restrictive measures), trying to break the country from within, imposing a “president” from outside,” the president pointed out as the actions promoted from the North American country, and stressed that “all these policies failed, they were defeated, firstly by reality and secondly by the strength” of the people of Venezuela and the Bolivarian government.
“We are prepared for dialogues at the highest level, for relations of respect, and hopefully, hopefully a halo of light would come to the United States of America, they would turn the page and put that extremist policy aside, and come to more pragmatic policies. in relation to Venezuela, hopefully. We are prepared, hopefully it will happen,” said the president.
Damage from Blocking
Maduro recalled the damage inflicted by the illegal unilateral coercive measures that make up the blockade against the country.
“In those difficult years where the oil industry was persecuted, Venezuela stopped receiving 232,000 million dollars and there was economic damage to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) above 630,000 million dollars,” the president summarized to refer to how The Caribbean nation was affected causing a catastrophe.
“These are gigantic figures, for a country to go from receiving 56 billion dollars to receiving 700 million dollars in a year is a catastrophe. Even so, thanks to the social policy of the revolution, to the social missions of the revolution, we were able to withstand the devastating impact of the sanctions, the persecution and this war… They were economic missiles, missiles launched against the entire economy, against all of society,” Maduro said.
oil reconnection
The president pointed out that in Venezuela the doors are open to resume the interrupted oil activity as a result of the boycott and blockade promoted against the country by the US.
“Venezuela is with its doors open, with special conditions for investment, for production, with political stability, with social stability,” he said.
Regarding the six-month license that the government of US President Joseph Biden granted to the transnational oil company Chevron, which was presented as a kind of lifting of the blockade, the president pointed out that said easing “does not mean that any sanction has been lifted (unilateral coercive measure), they are only giving a license to come to work, to produce, to invest, to the Chevron company, an American firm that has been producing in Venezuela for more than 100 years, 100 years now in 2023, 100 years exactly producing in Venezuela”, he highlighted.
He assured that the license for Chevron is “a good step… when it is fulfilled, it will show that we can work together and that they can come to Venezuela for another 100 years, if they want to,” he explained.
He pointed out that his government’s relations with Chevron are within the framework of the Constitution and the laws, while “the dialogue and conversations with them (Chevron) are extraordinary” and he hopes “that all the projects that have been signed, all the contracts that have been signed”.
“I send a message to all the energy companies in the world, in the United States, in Europe, in Latin America, in Asia; here in Venezuela there are the largest certified oil reserves in the world; here in Venezuela we are certifying the fourth gas reserve in the world. Venezuela is an energy power, no one, no one can remove us from the global energy equation. There we are, we are founders of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), founders and leaders of Opec-Plus (expansion of the scope of the group of nations that includes Russia), and we are going to continue in that process”, he said.
Relations with the EU are progressing well
“I think that, in general, step by step, with strategic patience, diplomacy and respect, we can move forward with the European Union,” said Maduro, referring to the “permanent dialogue” with Josep Borrell; High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and with the diplomatic representatives of the 27 EU states with missions in Caracas.
“Recently, Spain has just appointed Ambassador in Caracas, and gave its approval to the Venezuelan diplomat Coromoto Godoy as the new ambassador in Madrid, and she will be in Madrid very soon,” said the head of state.
