The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has once again addressed former US president Donald Trump in English to ask that a war not break out between the two countries. “No crazy war, please,” he said during an event with unions related to Chavismo held this Thursday in Caracas, amid a climate of growing military tension between Venezuela and the United States.
The president took advantage of the meeting to denounce what he considers a “threat of invasion” following US operations in the Caribbean, which the Venezuelan Government interprets as an attempt at a “siege” and “regime change” to seize the national oil. “Venezuela wants peace,” he stated before repeating, in a solemn tone and then with a certain irony, his message in English: “Yes peace, yes peace, forever, peace forever. No crazy war, no to the crazy war, no crazy war.”
At a later point, Maduro joked about his own English: “This is called Tarzan language. If it is translated into Tarzan-like Spanish it would be: no war, no want of war, no to the crazy war, no to the madness of war,” he said with a laugh, subtracting drama from statements that, however, occur in a context of growing tension with Washington.
The US Administration has recently confirmed the carrying out of covert operations in the Caribbean against vessels suspected of trafficking weapons and drugs from Venezuela. Caracas maintains that these maneuvers are part of a strategy of military pressure promoted by Trump and aimed at destabilizing the Venezuelan Government. “They are looking for a war to keep our oil,” said the president during his speech.
In response, Maduro ordered early Thursday morning the deployment of military exercises in 73 points on the Venezuelan coast, with the objective—as he said—of strengthening the country’s defense against “any attempt at external aggression.” The president added that in these maneuvers, war material acquired from Russia and China has been tested. “Thanks to President (Vladimir) Putin, thanks to Russia, thanks to China and thanks to many friends in the world, Venezuela has the equipment to guarantee peace,” he said.
The Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, supported this position by publicly accusing the CIA of operating within Venezuelan territory. “We know that the CIA is present not only in Venezuela, but in all parts of the world. They can put I don’t know how many bodies assigned to the CIA from any side of the nation, but any attempt will fail,” he warned.
In recent months, Maduro has insisted on the need to resume dialogue with the United States despite the breaking of diplomatic relations and the tightening of economic sanctions. According to diplomatic sources, the Venezuelan regime has tried on several occasions to negotiate a political transition, but these contacts have not been successful.
This Thursday’s gesture fits into that double strategy: challenging external pressure while sending a message of apparent conciliation. With his “No crazy war, please”, Maduro tries to project an image of a leader who rejects the conflict, although he continues to surround himself with military symbols and the support of Moscow and Beijing. On the Venezuelan board, between naval exercises and speeches in improvised English, the distance between the rhetoric of peace and the reality of the confrontation continues to be increasingly shorter.
