Venezuelan Minister El Aissami Responds to Gustavo Petro's Anti-Venezuela Narrative

The Sectorial Vice President of Venezuela for Economy and Oil, Tareck El Aissami, has issued a stern response to Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, counteracting the latter’s attacks on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.

Through a thread in his Twitter account, El Aissami blasted Petro’s recent remarks in which he had claimed that President Maduro “does not embrace democracy.”

Minister El Aissami wrote in response, “From Colombia, the drunken voices of the cowardly left and the voices of the paramilitary right sing together in an out of tune chorus, meddling in our affairs and with our people.”

“We are facing the most criminal aggression that is known,” El Aissami continued in another post, “economic war, blockade, financial persecution, assassination attempts against the president, sabotages and threats. And we are still standing, victorious, with dignity! When you speak of democracy, at least try to be sober.”

The Venezuelan minister also urged Gustavo Petro, as well as the entire Colombian political class, to get down to work and to “resolve the dramatic social situation and stop the systematic assassinations of activists [in Colombia].”

Nosotros estamos enfrentando la agresión más criminal que se haya conocido, guerra económica, bloqueo, persecución financiera, intentos de magnicidio, sabotajes y amenazas; y ESTAMOS DE PIE, VICTORIOSOS,con DIGNIDAD!! Cuando hablen de democracia, al menos traten de estar sobrios. https://t.co/cWZqEaYtEg
— Tareck El Aissami (@TareckPSUV) February 12, 2022

It should be noted here that such attacks by Petro against President Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution are not new. In all his attacks, he has never condemned the situation of hybrid war that Venezuela faces, generated by US aggression and the US and European Union-imposed blockade.

Is Petro a coward?
Recently, President Maduro condemned the anti-Bolvarian Revolution attacks coming from certain sectors of the Latin American left. “There is an intent to validate the imperialist aggression against Venezuela by a chorus of cowardly voices from a defeated, fragmented left, that is far removed from the reality of their own peoples,” Maduro commented last Thursday. “A cowardly left has emerged that bases its agenda on attacking the successful, victorious Bolivarian model, in attacking its historical legacy, and in attacking me as president.”

It appears that Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro considers that these comments were directed at him.

Quiero decirte @petrogustavo que @NicolasMaduro tiene la razón en decir que “por ahí ha surgido una izquierda cobarde” y YO las voy a identificar: La tuya y la de Boric, ambos atacan al gobierno de Venezuela para congraciarse con EEUU. #UdsDosSonCobardes https://t.co/su1QNH6OBb
— Guillermo Blanco 🌎🥎 (@BlancoGustavo10) February 12, 2022

Although Maduro did not mention Petro’s name at any time—in fact, he had not named anyone—everything indicates that Petro took the Venezuelan president’s comment as personal, and hence his remark on President Maduro being not democratic. Currently, Petro is considered in Colombia “the candidate of the left” running against the current neoliberal and pro-American government of Iván Duque.

Featured image: Venezuelan Sectorial Vice President for Economy and Oil, Tareck El Aissami (left) and Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro (Right). Photo: RedRadioVE

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/GMS/SC