Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that his country would go to a “armed struggle” if it was attacked.
Maduro said, although Venezuela is “still in the non -armed wrestling phase”, any attack would arouse a response from “all the people against the attack, whether local, regional or national”.
Maduro made these comments during “the operational and organizational activation of the whole Bolivarian national militia”, noting that Venezuela is in an “phase of enrollment and preparation”.
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The country will carry out “the deployment of defensive capacities, training and recycling of the entire population”.
During the “activation days”, the Venezuelans will receive training to defend the country against an American military deployment.
He demanded that US President Donald Trump “abandoned his plan for a violent change of regime in Venezuela and throughout Latin America, and the Caribbean. And respect the sovereignty, the right to peace and independence of our countries”.
He followed Trump’s warning on Friday that the Venezuelan military planes would be “slaughtered” if they approached American naval ships. It was after two F-16 Venezuelans fighter planes stole an American ship sent to the region to combat criminal organizations and “narco-terrorism”.
“I would say that they are going to be in trouble. We will inform them about it … if they fly in a dangerous position,” Trump told journalists in the oval office, referring to the F-16 overflight that the Pentagon called “very provocative”.
Maduro argued that “Venezuela has always been willing to speak” with the United States, but demands “respect for our country”.
Earlier Friday, the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yvan Gil said that a deployment of American planes, including 10 F-35 fighter planes sent to an air base in Puerto Rico, threatens the government of Maduro.
Gil said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the deployment “using as a pretext an assumed sustainability of drug trafficking”, an assertion that Gil called “the biggest lie.
Trump’s threat
President Donald Trump warned on Friday that Venezuelan military planes approaching American naval ships will be “slaughtered”.
“I would say they are going to be in trouble. We will inform them about it … if they fly in a dangerous position,” Trump told the journalists in the oval office. His remarks occurred one day after two V-16 venezuelans fighter “stolen” from an American warship in the Caribbean Sea.
The US Department of Defense has described the move as “very provocative” and warned the Venezuelan government that it should not interfere with the operations of counter-nostolot or US counter-terrorists.
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Trump stressed the United States’s commitment to stop Venezuela’s drug trafficking and elsewhere. “We don’t want drugs to come from Venezuela or anyone, or any place elsewhere, so we will be difficult on this subject,” he said.
When asked if the United States asked for a regime change in Venezuela, Trump said: “Well, we don’t talk about it, but we are talking about the fact that you had an election, which was a very strange election. To put it slightly, I am very nice when I say that. ”
He said the Venezuelan prisons “were opened to our country”, including members of the transnational criminal organization of Tren of Aragua, he said in the United States.
Trump had previously signed an executive decree to increase the use of military force against the Latin American drug cartels. According to Trump’s orders, an American naval group, including seven warships and a submarine, were sent to the Caribbean waters near Venezuela on August 28.
