Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after signing the economic emergency decree to counter the US "tariff war" and maximum pressure strategy. Caracas, April 8, 2025. Photo: Al Navio.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro signed an economic emergency decree on Tuesday, April 8, during a televised meeting with telecommunications and economic leaders. He framed the move as a response to what he called a US-led “tariff war” destabilizing global trade systems, alongside the revival of the “maximum pressure” strategy aimed at suffocating Venezuela’s economy.
The decree, pending approval by the National Assembly, seeks to bolster Venezuela’s economy amid escalating international tensions and US aggression.
President Maduro accused the US of dealing a “definitive and total blow” to international trade institutions, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), in an effort to impose “single hegemonic dominance” over global economic rules. He criticized the Trump administration’s recent sanctions and license revocations as attempts to oust him and dismantle Chavismo.
“International agreements like those under the WTO have been sidelined. Who will go to the WTO now? What can it do? As much as the UN Secretary-General [António Guterres] can do to stop the massacre in Palestine,” Maduro declared, drawing parallels between geopolitical conflicts, economic coercion, and the international system’s inability to prevent them.
End of globalization, rise of a pluripolar world
Maduro proclaimed the end of an 80-year era of US-dominated globalization, asserting that 2025 marks the dawn of a pluripolar world where economic and technological power is decentralized.
“Today’s world is no longer unipolar. A new multipolar reality has emerged—one where humanity’s economic weight extends far beyond the United States,” he stated, positioning Venezuela as part of this transformative shift.
Maduro highlighted Venezuela’s resistance to external pressures, citing its economic model and national vision for navigating crises. He pointed to recent growth—5% in 2023 and a projected 8% in 2024—as evidence of recovery despite US sanctions.
Rejection of neocolonialism
Framing the current US-driven crisis as a civilizational challenge, Maduro denounced any return to “economic colonialism” or subjugation.
“No nation should accept being a slave to hegemony. The 21st century must be an era of free peoples and real development,” he argued, positioning Venezuela’s defiance as part of a broader global movement.
“Every country has the right to its development. What is humanity’s dilemma—or our dilemma? The true dilemma, in one of its dichotomous elements, could contemplate returning to slavery. Would any of us accept being enslaved again by anyone in this world? In the deepest reasoning of existence, you know we would not. Individually and collectively, as a people and as humanity, could humanity enter a new era of economic colonialism—and through economic colonialism, political, cultural, ideological, and technological colonialism? Is that fair? I say it is neither democratic nor humane.”
Maduro clarified:
Over the last 40 to 50 years, a world far beyond US hegemonism has emerged—a world far beyond the illusion of unipolar domination. In fact, in technological, commercial, economic, and even monetary terms, the world we live in today—2025—is a pluripolar, pluricentric world. Today, humanity’s economic weight is greater and more significant than that of the United States alone. We belong to this new world, have always belonged to it, and as I said, we will belong to it forever. How events will unfold, we shall see. But what is certain is that today, thanks to God, thanks to the national effort of all Venezuela, thanks to the vision we have had through planning, teamwork, dialogue, and the National Economic Council, Venezuela has its own economic model and its own engines to confront this new stage of humanity’s economy and emerge successful.
To be enslaved, to be colonies, to be dominated by a hegemon is no alternative for humanity and no alternative for Venezuela—this Republic that has risen with historic heroism and today has the means to resist, advance, and chart its own prosperous development.
I say this with passion and with love. Because we are driven by a gigantic love for our country and also a gigantic love for humanity.
It is not true what is said about the United States—that the world has taken advantage of the United States, that the world has plundered the United States, and therefore the United States must impose tariff conditions on the entire world. It is not true!
It is not true that the United States is liberating itself from the rest of the world. Who is liberating whom? The United States from the world, or must the world liberate itself from the United States?
The elites of the United States of America must understand that sooner or later, they must respect and coexist with distinct human civilizations and peoples who have the right to development, equality, and a future. They will have to understand that this is the civilizational challenge for all humanity. I am not even saying it is a civilizational challenge for Venezuelans, Latin Americans, or Caribbeans—it is the civilizational challenge of humanity. The era of emperors and colonial powers belongs to past centuries. The 21st century is a time of democracy, freedom, and free peoples. And for there to be free peoples, there must be development—real development.
President Maduro: Venezuela Will Defeat US Tariffs and Trade War
Specifically, the decree allows President Maduro:
• To issue temporary and exceptional regulations to restore economic balance,
• To suspend the application and collection of national, state, and municipal taxes,
• To centralize in the National Treasury the collection of rates and special contributions created by laws,
• To establish extraordinary mechanisms to combat tax evasion and avoidance,
• To suspend exceptions to national taxes and proceed with their collection,
• To implement mechanisms and mandatory purchase percentages of national production to favor import substitution—prioritizing the purchase of all nationally produced goods,
• To adopt all necessary measures to stimulate national and international investment for the development of the productive apparatus, as well as non-traditional exports,
• To authorize contracts necessary to guarantee the population’s fundamental rights,
• To approve expenditures charged to the National Treasury and other financing sources not included in the annual budget (e.g., as done during 2016–2018 to sustain programs like CLAP, vital for agricultural stability), and
• To authorize exceptional public credit operations, reprogramming, and supplements not foreseen in the Special Debt Law, including increases to maximum debt limits.
The decree will remain in effect for 60 days from its publication in the Official Gazette of Venezuela, renewable for an additional 60 days per constitutional procedure. It must also be submitted to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court within eight days for a ruling on its constitutionality, in accordance with the Organic Law on States of Exception.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
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