Donald Trump would do better if he focused more on the US than on Venezuela. This was stated by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a televised address, reported Agence France-Presse.
"President Trump could do better in his country and in the world. He would do better in his own country on economic and social issues and he would do better in the world if he were concerned with the affairs of his country“, said Maduro. “It is not possible for him to devote 70 percent of his speeches and statements and his time to Venezuela. And the US? The poor US, which needs the housing and the jobs that he can create? Let everyone take care of their country!“, Maduro said.
"Honestly, if I talk to him (Trump) again, I will tell him: “Let everyone mind their own business. Here in Venezuela, we are dealing with our own business, with Venezuelan business“, Maduro added.
Earlier this evening, Trump said that it would be wiser for Maduro to leave.
At the same time, in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, dozens of motorcyclists disguised as Caribbean pirates protested against the US seizure of ships transporting Venezuelan oil, Agence France-Presse reported.
One of the participants in the protest march said that people had joined it to denounce the biggest Caribbean pirate, namely the US. Another participant said that Venezuela is a country of peace, and the US is the one who invades and takes what belongs to someone else and takes it away. A third participant in the march called Trump the “Dracula of crude oil“ because he was “a vampire who drank other countries' oil“.
Trump and Maduro spoke by phone on November 21. The US recently said it would impose a naval blockade around Venezuela against oil tankers that are subject to sanctions and are considered part of Venezuela's shadow navy.
Since the summer, Trump has also deployed warships to the Caribbean, accusing Venezuela of using its oil to finance narco-terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnappings - something Caracas vehemently denies. Maduro believes Trump wants to remove him from power and seize Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest on the planet.
Maduro warned in a letter to the United Nations that international markets could suffer consequences due to the strong US military presence in the Caribbean region and US Coast Guard operations targeting sanctioned oil tankers in the area, DPA reported. "Energy must not become a weapon of war," Maduro said in a letter to UN member states, which Foreign Minister Ivan Hill read at a press conference yesterday.
In the letter, Maduro condemned US attacks on suspected drug trafficking vessels, which he said had killed more than 100 people in recent months, as well as the blockade of oil tankers traveling to or from Venezuela.
Meanwhile, a US judge ordered the return of 137 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador, Reuters reported, citing information from “Bloomberg“.
The deported Venezuelans were taken to prison in the Central American country on charges of ties to criminal gangs. They were deported from the US to El Salvador in March.
But now US District Judge James Boasberg has ruled that their removal from the US violated their right to a fair trial and they have the right to return to US court to challenge their deportation. The Trump administration must present a plan to allow their return within two weeks, the judge ruled.
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