Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denounced on Thursday the military assault, hijacking and theft of an oil tanker by the United States north of Trinidad and Tobago, as the vessel “entered the Atlantic.” The president described this act as the beginning of a “new era of criminal naval piracy against the entire Caribbean.”
“It was an act of piracy against a merchant, commercial, civilian and private vessel,” the Venezuelan leader stated, adding that “the ship was carrying 1.9 million barrels of oil that they bought from Venezuela.”
During a visit to the Amalivaca Socialist Commune in the Pinto Salinas sector of the El Recreo parish in Caracas, Maduro asserted that with this incident, “the mask has fallen” for the United States, revealing that the true interest behind the action is the seizure of Venezuelan oil. “It is the oil they want to steal, and Venezuela will protect its oil,” the president emphasized.
In this regard, the president stated that “if Venezuela did not have the largest oil reserves in the world, Venezuela would not exist for the billionaires and supremacists of the United States.”
The Venezuelan head of state expressed his deep concern for the ship’s crew, noting that the sailors are being “held hostage” and that their current whereabouts are unknown. The statement underscores the gravity of the situation, which, according to President Maduro, threatens Venezuelan sovereignty and regional maritime security.
“The destiny of the United States and Venezuela must be one of respect, friendship, and cooperation,” the president emphasized while greeting the international delegations present. He also called on the American people to “win peace, tie the hands of the warmongers, and defeat the plans for a mad war” in South America. In this regard, he delivered a message in English in which he exclaimed, “No blood for oil! Not war for oil!”
On Wednesday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry condemned “what constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by the President of the United States, who confessed to the attack on an oil tanker.”
The Foreign Ministry recalled that this is not the first time he has admitted this, stating that “during his 2024 campaign, he openly affirmed that his objective has always been to seize Venezuelan oil without paying anything in return, making it clear that the policy of aggression against our country is part of a deliberate plan to plunder our energy resources.”
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry also denounced that this new criminal act adds to the theft of Citgo, a key asset of the strategic patrimony of all Venezuelans, seized through fraudulent judicial mechanisms and outside the bounds of any legal framework.
The Foreign Ministry maintained that in these circumstances, “the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been exposed. It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”
In the statement, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reiterated the call to all Venezuelans to remain steadfast in defense of the homeland and urged the international community “to reject this vandalistic, illegal, and unprecedented aggression, which they seek to normalize as a tool of pressure and plunder.”
The Bolivarian Government reaffirms that it will appeal to all existing international bodies to denounce “this grave international crime” and will defend “with absolute determination its sovereignty, its natural resources, and its national dignity.”
Venezuela – the statement concludes – “will not allow any foreign power to attempt to deprive the Venezuelan people of what belongs to them by historical and constitutional right.”
IMAGE CREDIT: The act of piracy perpetrated by the U.S. threatens Venezuelan sovereignty and regional maritime security, according to President Nicolás Maduro. Photo: Presidential Press Office
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
