Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza introduced a group of countries opposed to the US-backed efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday.
Arreaza elaborated that the new group would be conducting “a series of actions to increase awareness around the dangers that our peoples currently face, particularly the case of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We call upon all the member states of the UN to join us in defending international law as the only guarantor of… peaceful coexistence”.
The foreign minister said that the United States was trying to starve Venezuela and now is offering to send humanitarian aid.
Commenting on reports that the US has been trying to turn Venezuela’s armed forces against President Maduro, Arreaza said that Washington needed to “rethink your strategy” because “this test of loyalty of the military is over”.
In a parallel development, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia also expressed alarm over how events are unfolding in the South American country:
“We are very concerned that some hotheads are considering military action. We are categorically against it. It’s not just about the Maduro government. It’s about defending international law and the UN Charter”.
The statements by the diplomats come amid the Trump administration’s repeated claims that a military intervention in Venezuela was “an option”.
Responding to Trump’s remarks, Maduro has warned that he would make the US interference irreparable if Washington chooses to go ahead with the military option:
“We are planning to respond to a US intervention in such a way as to make the US suffer irreparable military and human losses”, he said.
During a hearing on the Venezuela crisis earlier this week, House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said that US military intervention “is not an option”.