Alwaght- Venezuela’s Foreign Minister has accused United States President Donald Trump of acting like “the world’s emperor”.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza responded to US president who denounced as corrupt the government of Nicolás Maduro in his own address to the assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders last week.
Arreaza’s speech at assembly came a day after Trump signed a travel ban affecting some Venezuelan officials.
“As if he were the world’s emperor, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, used this podium built for peace to announce wars, total destruction of member states” and “coercive measures, threatening and judging as if he had absolute, dictatorial powers over the sovereign member states of our organization,” Arreaza said. Trump had threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if forced to defend the US or its allies.
Invoking the former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s famous quip that the podium “smells like sulfur” after George W Bush addressed the assembly in 2006, Arreaza said: “It’s still valid.” But he added later that his country was open to dialogue with the US.
Trump conducting political terrorism
Elsewhere, Venezuela accused Trump of conducting "political terrorism" through travel restrictions on eight countries including the socialist-run South American nation.
Trump on Sunday announced the restrictions on citizens from North Korea, Venezuela and Chad, expanding earlier travel bans that have been derided by critics and courts.
"It is worth pointing out that these types of lists are incompatible with international law, and constitute a form of psychological and political terrorism," the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Our people are being sanctioned because of their pacifist nature as well as their tolerance and respect for different religions and beliefs," it added.
Washington this year has issued several rounds of sanctions against Venezuelan officials, partly in response to the creation of a legislative body called the Constituent Assembly.
Trump’s administration has publicized its policy of pursuing regime change in Venezuela. Speaking in January before his confirmation, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that he would pursue regime change in Venezuela. Tillerson was an executive in ExxonMobil when in 2007, late Venezuelan President Chavez ordered the nationalization of 22 major multinational corporations operating in the country including ExxonMobil.
