Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has blasted the Trump administration and Vice President Mike Pence personally over their alleged attempts to bribe the Venezuelan military into siding with the coup plotters.
“Yesterday, Mike Pence declared that the soldier who betrays the homeland and switches to the side of the gringos –that they will reward him. [This is] a lack of respect for honour, morals, and the dignity of the Bolivarian Armed Forces,” Maduro said, speaking in the state of Aragua, northern Venezuela.
Maduro stressed that Pence had no authority to advise the Venezuelan military in any way.
“This is an imperialist colonialist view of things. They think that having given the orders, Venezuela’s military will just say ‘understood Mr. Pence.’ No! Mike Pence, the constitutional, legitimate commander in chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces is here before you and his name is Nicolas Maduro Moros,” Maduro said.
The Venezuelan president warned that his country was well defended, with 2.3 million militia members being trained to “defend every inch of the nation’s territory” if need be. Maduro stressed that Venezuela is equipped with modern weapons systems, with the military prepared to wage a defensive war based on “a new structure, a new strategic concept” across every province.