Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro addressed the American people on Friday, urging them to “stop the mad hand of those ordering war in the Caribbean,” in the context of the military operation launched by Washington in the region under the pretext of combating drug trafficking, which has generated increased tensions between the two countries.
“It is to the people of the United States that I am addressing myself at this moment (…) to tell them to stop the mad hand of those ordering bombing, killing, and waging war in South America and the Caribbean. Stop the war. No to war,” he declared during a meeting of jurists defending international law held in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.
Maduro maintained that “the people of the United States have a crucial role to play at this moment in stopping what could be a tragedy for” the entire continent. He also stated that “the vast majority of the American people do not want war in the world, and even less do they want a war in America.”
Furthermore, the Venezuelan head of state argued in his address that a militaristic, colonialist current cannot be allowed to “emerge and impose itself and come to kill” innocent people.
Maduro’s statements come a day after the Pentagon announced Operation Southern Spear against “narco-terrorists” in Latin America, following the deployment of a new aircraft carrier and amid bombings of alleged drug-laden vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, which have left more than 70 dead.
The United Nations, along with the governments of Venezuela and Colombia, have denounced these practices as extrajudicial killings and have indicated that the victims are primarily fishermen. In Caracas, there is fear of a possible US military intervention, a possibility also raised by Bogotá.
