The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has rejected Donald Trump’s announcement, which ordered the closure of Venezuela’s air and naval space. On Tuesday night (12/16), the President of the United States banned the entry and exit of oil tankers from Venezuelan territory.
In a statement issued in the early hours of Wednesday (12/17), Venezuela rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat.” The Maduro government denounces the fact that the American president violated “international law, free trade and the right to free navigation” and launched a “reckless and serious threat against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.
According to Venezuela, Trump intends to “impose, in a completely irrational manner, a so-called naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.”
Maduro’s government rejects the negotiation on natural resources and says the country’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN) will denounce this “serious violation of international law against Venezuela.”
In the memo, Venezuela claims that Trump’s new threat proves that the United States’ true intention with military action on the country’s periphery is to “appropriate Venezuela’s oil, land and minerals through massive campaigns of lies and manipulation.”
“Venezuela will never be a colony of any empire or foreign power and will continue to follow, with its people, the path of building prosperity and unrestricted defense of our independence and sovereignty,” the note said.
See the full note from Venezuela, translated into Portuguese:
United Venezuela rejects Mr. Trump’s grotesque threat and will denounce it.
On the night of December 16, 2025, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, violating international law, free trade and the right to free navigation, issued a reckless and serious threat against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
On his social networks, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land and mineral wealth belongs to him. Therefore, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its wealth to him. The President of the United States intends to impose, in a completely irrational manner, a so-called naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.
Venezuela, in full exercise of the international law that protects us, of our Constitution and the laws of the Republic, reaffirms its sovereignty over all its natural resources, as well as the right to free navigation and free trade in the Caribbean Sea and in the oceans of the world. Therefore, in strict accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, we will fully exercise our freedom, jurisdiction and sovereignty in the face of these warmongering threats.
Our ambassador to the UN will immediately denounce this serious violation of international law against Venezuela.
We call on the people of the United States and the people of the world to reject by all means this extravagant threat, which once again reveals the true intentions of Donald Trump to steal the wealth of the country that gave birth to the United Army for the Liberation of South America and our Liberator, Simón Bolívar. The Venezuelan people, in perfect popular, military and police unity, will know how to defend their historic rights and triumph on the path to peace.
Mr. Donald Trump uses the following interventionist and colonialist phrase verbatim: “until all the oil, land and other property stolen from us is returned to the United States.” Their true intention, denounced by Venezuela and the people of the United States in mass protests, has always been to appropriate the country’s oil, land and minerals through massive campaigns of lies and manipulation.
Venezuela will never be the colony of an empire or a foreign power and will continue to follow, with its people, the path of prosperity and the unrestricted defense of our independence and sovereignty.
The Venezuelan people, in perfect popular, military and police unity, remain firm in the unrestricted protection of their territory, their wealth and their freedom. With our Liberator, we say: “Fortunately, we have seen a handful of free men defeat powerful empires. »
Trump orders air and naval blockade of Venezuela
Donald Trump has once again raised his voice against Nicolas Maduro and ordered an air and naval blockade against Venezuela. According to a press release from the North American president published Tuesday evening (12/16), all ships sanctioned by the United States, which enter or leave Venezuelan territory carrying oil, are blocked.
In the message, published on the Truth social network, the North American leader accuses the Chavista government of stealing American assets, such as oil, in addition to using the country’s oil sector to “finance itself”, “drug-related terrorism” and “human trafficking”. Therefore, Trump said the measure should last “until Maduro leaves (power).”
“America will not allow criminal terrorists or other countries to steal, threaten or harm our nation and, likewise, will not allow a hostile regime to take our oil, land or any other assets, all of which must be returned to the United States IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote, without providing evidence of possible theft by Venezuela against the United States.
Trump’s new decision comes on top of another unilateral US blockade against Venezuela. At the end of November, the North American president announced the closure of the airspace of the country led by Maduro, against a backdrop of military escalation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Currently, the United States is conducting Operation Southern Spear in the region, the stated objective of which is to combat drug trafficking. To date, approximately 26 boats have been attacked in the waters of the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean for allegedly transporting narcotics to North American soil.
Maduro, for his part, is the main target of threats coming from Washington. Internationally contested, the political heir of Hugo Chávez is appointed head of the Los Soles cartel. The same group was recently classified as an international terrorist organization by the United States.
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