President Nicolas Maduro has launched a war of words against the US Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, saying the latter was trying to confuse and divide the Venezuelan people, “putting on a mask of a chavist.”
The Venezuelan president slammed Abrams as “an old hawk of the cold war” during his meeting with teachers in Caracas, broadcasted by the country’s TV.
“Eliott Abrams surprised the world and came out as a defender of the legacy of Commander [Hugo] Chavez … he claims to be an advocate of Chavism and Chavez’s legacy… is it credible? Why does he take that turn? Why do you mean to say now that Maduro is the bad guy?” the incumbent president noted.
He also noted ironically: “Should we obey him, this chief, vice-king of the Venezuelan lands?”
Maduro emphasised that Chavez’s idea was fighting against US imperialism and defending the sovereignty of Latin America, stressing that Abrams is not compatible with these principles.
“Is this Eliot Abrams becoming a chavist? It is a vulgar maneuver, it is nonsense to pretend that imperialism defends the legacy of Hugo Chavez, because the legacy of Hugo Chavez is the anti-imperialist legacy,” Maduro insisted.