Caracas, March 31 (RHC)-- Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza Tuesday assured that his country's sovereignty is not negotiable and rejected a proposal by the United States for a "political transition."
"They can say what they want when they want, and how they want. However, the decisions on Venezuela are made in Venezuela with its institutions and constitution. We are not supervised by the United States," Arreaza said.
On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams presented a project for a "political transition," which was endorsed by State Secretary Mike Pompeo. "We've made clear all along that Nicolas Maduro will never again govern Venezuela," Pompeo said at a press conference in Washington. Asked if the opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido could run in the presidential election, which the United States would like to implement in Venezuela within a year, Pompeo said: "Absolutely yes... we continue to support him."
Venezuela has always denounced the interventionist actions of the United States, a country that insists on destabilizing the government of President Nicolas Maduro. "Venezuela's decisions are made in Caracas. We are not supervised by Washington or by any other capital. They waste their time in their maze, ”the Bolivarian minister stressed.
“We've always wanted to have good relationships, but they are obsessed with controlling Venezuela and its oil. We do what Venezuela says, not what Trump orders," Arreaza added.
In frank disrespect for international law, however, Abrams and Pompeo’s “Democratic Transition Framework” proposes to create a Council of State in Venezuela that would be made up of members of the ruling party and opposition parties.
This interim government would assume power until the presidential and legislative elections are held in late 2020. If so, the U.S. would lift the coercive measures it imposed on Venezuela.
On Monday, President Maduro asked the international community for its support to stop the persecution that the U.S. is executing against his country amidst the pandemic.
"I ask for your invaluable support in the face of this unusual and arbitrary persecution, which is executed through a refreshed version of that stale McCarthyism unleashed after the Second World War. Then they pleasantly labeled their adversaries as Communists to persecute them, today they do so through the whimsical categories of terrorists or drug traffickers," the Bolivarian president said.