Parliament is processing a law to punish those who help block trade with Venezuela with 15 to 20 years in prison
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday urged his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to “address his country’s issues,” suggesting that “he would be better off,” amidst escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas over the alleged anti-drug trafficking operation by the US and Trump’s threats to intervene militarily on Venezuelan soil.
“A president cannot be thinking about how he is going to govern other countries. Imagine if I wasted my time, instead of being president of Venezuela, thinking about interfering with other countries, looking for problems and trouble for other countries, wanting to govern the world. I would be doing a very bad job. It would be wrong,” he declared during an event in Caracas, broadcast by the state-run channel VTV.
The leader argued that “one has to concentrate on governing their country, on addressing their country’s problems, and bringing together all the economic and social forces, all the vital forces of a country to produce, which is what we have done, with a plan.”
Maduro also commented on the departure, the previous day, of an oil tanker belonging to the US company Chevron: “When we sign a contract in accordance with the Constitution, that is fulfilled, come rain or shine, as is happening with Chevron.”
In this regard, he addressed “investors who operate under the respect of national regulations, the Constitution, the Hydrocarbons Law,” assuring them that “we are people of our word and of the law, we are serious people.”
“Beyond the circumstantial, momentary conflicts we may have with the current (US) administration, the contract with Chevron is being strictly fulfilled,” he added, after Vice President Delcy Rodríguez reported the departure of the vessel ‘Canopus Voyager’ “with Venezuelan oil bound for the United States.” PARLIAMENT CONSIDERS IMPRISONMENT FOR THOSE WHO “PROMOTE THE BLOCKADE” OF TRADE
This Monday, the National Assembly (AN) approved on first reading a bill aimed at guaranteeing freedom of navigation and trade against “piracy, blockades, and other international illicit acts,” as Caracas has described the recent actions of the U.S. Navy.
The initiative, presented by Deputy Giuseppe Alessandrello (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), seeks to protect the country’s trade relations and Venezuelans from “the predatory actions of the U.S. government.”
To this end, it establishes prison sentences of between 15 and 20 years for “any person who promotes, instigates, solicits, invokes, favors, facilitates, supports, finances, or participates in acts of piracy, blockade, or other international illicit acts against legal entities that conduct commercial operations with the Republic (of Venezuela) and its entities, by foreign states, powers, corporations, or individuals.”
The bill also contemplates punishing these actions with fines “equivalent to 100,000 to one million times the highest exchange rate published by the Central Bank of Venezuela.”
“This Venezuelan people (…) will respond to all aggressions and will prevail, have no doubt about that,” said the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, at the end of the vote.
