At United Nations, Venezuela levels passionate attack against U.S. calls for change

Venezuela’s foreign minister leveled a passionate attack against the United States and its European allies during a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, accusing the Trump administration of following a tradition of American interventionism in Latin America.

“The United States is not behind the coup d’état,” said Jorge Arreaza, the Venezuelan representative speaking at the U.N. “It is in advance. It’s in the vanguard of the coup d’état. It is dictating orders, not only to the Venezuelan opposition but also to the satellite governments in the region and, it seems, in Europe and the other parts of the world.”

As evidence, Arreaza pointed to Twitter and other social media messages posted by President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Marco Rubio and others recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela and calling on that nation’s military to abandon the Nicolás Maduro regime.

“It was on the 22nd [of January], when Vice President Pence basically in a tweet gave a green light for a coup d’état in Venezuela,” Arreaza said.

Citing Venezuela’s constitution and the United Nations charter, the Venezuelan foreign minister then challenged the legitimacy of Guaidó, leader of the country’s National Assembly and the self-proclaimed interim president who has called Maduro’s election fraudulent.

“I challenge you to find a legal basis for the self-proclamation of an individual who wasn’t elected by anyone as president,” he said.

Arreaza also accused the United States of “aggression” for imposing sanctions against Venezuela, and said that President Trump had threatened military action against the country.

“How is it possible,” he said, “that a president threatened the use of force. It wasn’t Mike Bolton who did it. It wasn’t Mike Pence. It wasn’t Marco Rubio. It was Donald Trump who threatened the use of military force directly against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

The Venezuelan foreign minister then launched into a laundry list of examples of American intervention in Latin America dating back to 1911, when Arreaza said the U.S. invaded Mexico — a reference to the Border War of 1910-1919 — and ending with what he called a clandestine U.S. intervention in Honduras in 2009.

Arreaza also accused fellow Latin American nations, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia and others of taking their cues from Trump via Twitter.

“They were waiting for the order, and as soon as the order was given they started recognizing” Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela, he said. “It’s too obvious. It’s too shameless. You can see the evidence everywhere of this coup d’état. ... It should be condemned.”

The Venezuelan foreign minister reserved some of his most bitter statements for European nations, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium, whose representatives have called on Maduro to hold new elections within eight days. Arreaza called the European nations “lackeys” of the United States.

“Europe is giving us eight days,” he asked. “Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people? Where do you get this? It’s almost child-like.”

The newly appointed U.S. envoy leading the Trump administration’s efforts in Venezuela was quick to respond. Elliott Abrams, a veteran of past presidential administrations, said Arreaza was insulting the countries represented at the U.N. Security Council meeting by calling them “satellites” of the United States.

“It was interesting that every single country that was attacked or criticized was a democracy,” Abrams noted. “Every single one that you criticized was a democracy. It was just a series of insults that reflect the fact that today there is a satellite present here and it is Venezuela, which unfortunately has become a satellite of Cuba and Russia.”

Abrams accused Arreaza of hiding behind the laws and constitution of Venezuela while imprisoning and assassinating its opponents, citing the case of Fernando Albán, a Venezuelan opposition member who was jailed by Venezuela’s intelligence police and accused of plotting to assassinate Maduro. Albán died in the custody of Venezuela’s police, who said that Albán killed himself by jumping from the 10th floor of the state police agency’s headquarters.

Abrams then turned the accusation of oppressive government and interference on the Maduro regime.

“Democracy,” Abrams said, “never needs to be imposed. It is tyranny that needs to be imposed.”

This story was originally published January 26, 2019 at 1:13 PM.