Venezuela accuses the United States of trying to “wag war” in Latin America and the Caribbean.

MADRID, December 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino on Friday accused the US government of trying to “wag war” in Latin America and the Caribbean, amid tensions between Washington and Caracas over US military deployment in the region.

“When they call us liars, there must be a reaction. The people of the United States must understand that their government is an instrument of war. They want and intend, now here in this Western Hemisphere, to wage war in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he said.

Likewise, Padrino argued that Venezuelans are “crying for peace”: “They must listen … to the need to resolve conflicts through dialogue,” he said at a Global Aerospace Defense Command anniversary event.

“To the detriment of state sovereignty, respect for nations and their democracies, the intention is to close the Caribbean to the interests of the United States, to politically dominate the states, to steal and appropriate the natural resources of the hemisphere,” said the head of the ministerial portfolio.

This is why he considered that “supremacism has taken hold of the current American administration, and they intend to kneel under the de facto siege plan that they have against Venezuela, starting with sanctions” which are “illegal instruments” and which have an impact on the economy and the people of Venezuela.

SEIZED SHIP: VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

The Defense Minister also commented on the case of the tanker recently intercepted by American troops, saying that it was a civilian merchant ship and that it had been attacked south of the Caribbean island of Grenada.

“Leaving towards the Atlantic, a ship which, exercising free trade and free navigation, transported Venezuelan oil to other international markets. This constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. A violation of the right to free navigation, to free trade”, he affirmed.

However, he described the seizure as a “crude, crude, cowardly act of piracy, consisting of imposing force to appropriate resources that do not belong to it.” Thus, he wonders about the status of the crew members: “Where are they? Who is holding them hostage?