Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro issued a letter to leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean, condemning the United States for what it claims is “state piracy” and accusing it of engaging in “extremely serious aggression.”
The letter warned of the “escalation of extremely serious aggression by the Government of the United States of America, the effects of which transcend my country’s borders and threaten to destabilize the entire region and the international system as a whole.” Maduro added that the U.S. military’s presence in the waters is a “direct threat.”
“In this regard, I must emphasize that Venezuela has not committed any act that would justify such military intimidation,” he claimed.
Discussing the strikes against drug trafficking boats, Maduro wrote, “These are not isolated incidents, but rather a systematic practice of lethal use of force outside any international legal framework and even outside the constitutional framework of the United States of America, where an intense debate is currently taking place, both in Congress and among the general public, which overwhelmingly condemns such actions.”
The Venezuelan leader went on to compare the United States’ military presence to the rise of Nazism. “In the 1930s, the silence and passivity of the international community in the face of the rise of Nazism led to an unprecedented human tragedy: the Holocaust and a world war,” the letter read. “Today, historical differences aside, the logic is the same: if the unilateral use of force, the execution of civilians, piracy, and the plundering of sovereign states’ resources are tolerated, the world is headed toward a scenario of global confrontation of unpredictable proportions.”
A recent report suggests that the Venezuelan military is preparing for an extended guerrilla war should President Trump order a ground invasion. Venezuela plans a “prolonged resistance” campaign, ordering military units to split into more than 280 locations across the country to conduct sabotage operations, the report claims. Officials described this as a guerrilla approach intended to make the nation ungovernable for any leader installed by the United States.
