The diplomat began his speech referring to the words of the US president, who said Wednesday that he has “surrounded” the South American country at “a level that no one knows.”
The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, said this Wednesday that the US “does not have a head of state, but a gangster,” after Donald Trump affirmed during a telephone conversation with representatives of the Hispanic community, he has “surrounded” Venezuela to “a level that no one knows.”
With that quote, Moncada began his speech at the session of the United Nations Security Council, where the failed attempt at a maritime mercenary incursion against the South American country was debated. The diplomat stressed that Trump speaks “the language of a gangster” and his statements are evidence the US “violates international law on many levels.”
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Iranian ships
Moncada brought up several issues to argue the accusation against Washington, including the US threat to use military force against five Iranian oil tankers headed for Venezuela, which in Caracas’s opinion “would constitute a real armed aggression” not only against Tehran but also against the Venezuelan people.
The Venezuelan representative said that these US threats “violate, among other things, freedom of commerce and navigation.”
Hoy en Consejo de Seguridad ONU denunciamos la guerra sucia de los gobiernos de Trump y Duque que ejecutan ataques terroristas contra Venezuela usando narcotraficantes y mercenarios. Son crímenes contra la humanidad.
Vea discurso aquí: https://t.co/QapU2tbP8E
— Samuel Moncada (@SMoncada_VEN) May 20, 2020
In addition, Moncada added that Trump’s government “has openly admitted that it pressures companies to refrain from supplying gasoline to Venezuela,” an issue to which he attributed the growing fuel shortage that has been affecting millions of Venezuelans for weeks.
“What if, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, New York City was deliberately deprived of gas? This would undoubtedly count as a crime against humanity, which is precisely what the US government does. The US is currently perpetrating a crime against 30 million Venezuelans,” added the ambassador.
Minutes later, from Venezuela, the Minister for the Defense of Venezuela, General-in-Chief Vladimir Padrino López, guaranteed that the Iranian oil tankers, as soon as they “enter the exclusive economic zone” of the South American country, “will be escorted by ships and planes of the Bolivarian Armed Force (FANB)”.
“We will receive that aid, humanitarian aid, as we have received from Russia, from China, from other parts of the world. Welcome solidarity. We have already established contact with the Iranian Defense Minister,” added Padrino Lopez.
Raid attempt
The issue that focused the debate was the attempted armed incursion that was thwarted by the Venezuelan authorities on May 3. In this regard, Moncada urged the Security Council “to fulfill the duties and responsibilities” entrusted to it by the founding Charter of the United Nations for the “maintenance of international peace and security.”
Likewise, it asked the agency to recognize “the acts of aggression that have been committed against Venezuela” and demand that its authors put an “immediate end to their criminal practices,” including the use or threats og use of force or new armed attacks “even through the use of mercenaries and terrorists,” as it happened earlier this month on the central coast of Venezuela.
The main concern for Caracas is that these actions undermine international law to “impose tyrannical, whimsical and colonial practices on the rest of the world.” “The US government and its allies are creating a lawless space,” he emphasized.
Likewise, the ambassador stressed that although the US government insists on presenting itself as the “savior” of Venezuela, claiming to be the “main donor” of humanitarian assistance for the South American country, it has never been willing to use the mechanisms that exist in the United Nations to make that aid effective, as other nations have done.
The role of the United Kingdom
On the other hand, Moncada denounced the United Kingdom for being an “opportunistic accomplice” of the United States in the theft of his country’s wealth, after “the looting of more than 1.7 billion dollars in Venezuelan gold by the Bank of England.”
In line with the recent official protest in Caracas, the ambassador reiterated his country’s rejection of the existence of a “Venezuela Reconstruction Unit” within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Commonwealth, through which conversations have been held between officials from the UK with “Venezuelan opposition figures and conspirators from the recent armed incursion.”
To this statement, Moncada added the complaint that British warships remain just outside of Venezuelan territorial waters, “in a hostile and confrontational attitude”, together with ships of war from the Netherlands, France and the US,” conveniently disguised as operations to fight drug trafficking.”
Featured image: The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada. February 28, 2019.Photo: Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Translated by JRE/EF
