Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino LĂłpez at an event in the Tiuna Fort, Caracas. Photo: AFP/file photo.
Venezuelan Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino LĂłpez criticized the US attempts to manufacture consent to attack Venezuela. He made this comment in the context of the US deploying naval vessels to the Caribbean under the pretense of “combating drug trafficking.”
“The issue is that a narrative is being constructed to attack Venezuela, that is, creating lies which then become a truth,” said the minister in a video posted on social media.
He highlighted that the United States has a “huge media apparatus to spread its lies and create false truths. It is a battle between truth and lies, but the imperialist media apparatus is so large that it is able to turn lies into ‘truths’.”
View this post on Instagram
“Whoever wants to fabricate a lie, fabricates it and nothing happens, because there is no law, there is no rule of international law, we are without international law,” he added.
The minister also questioned whether the United States would not deploy troops in the Pacific.
“Are they not going to deploy in the Pacific, from where almost 90% of the drugs for the United States come?” he asked. “The problem is the Caribbean? Is the issue Venezuela? Are the cartels then in Venezuela? Are the coca crops in Venezuela?”
Trump’s Venezuela Drug War Gambit and the Militarization Playbook at Home
Venezuela is free from drugs
On Thursday, Venezuelan minister of the Interior, Peace, and Justice, Diosdado Cabello, announced that Venezuelan forces have been deployed in the country’s waters in response to the US deployment in the Caribbean to combat drug trafficking.
He also emphasized that Venezuela is free of drug production and dismissed US claims that Venezuela is a distribution hub. He pointed out that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is the “only drug cartel that operates in broad daylight” and that it “depends directly on the United States government, irrespective of who the president is.”
He said that when the DEA makes a move, “it is to secure the drug transport for themselves.”
“Now, the thing is this: to be considered a cartel, one must produce, process, and transport drugs,” he expressed. “The United Nations has said very clearly that there is no production of any kind of drug in Venezuela, it is a territory free from production, there are no laboratories, there is no drug processing anywhere in Venezuela, and the UN report says that Venezuela is not a transit country either.”
He added that Venezuelan authorities are on alert against any kind of aggression.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
