Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Moscow, Dec 13.- U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated that U.S. military forces will attack unspecified locations in Latin America by land to combat cartels, following the success of bombings carried out against small vessels—designated without evidence as drug boats—in the hemisphere's waters.
"We have eradicated 96% of the drugs coming by water. And now we are starting by land, and by land it is much easier. And that is going to start happening. And we are not going to allow people to destroy our youth, our families," he told the media from the White House.
According to him, his administration has eradicated drugs at unprecedented levels, which has saved 25,000 American lives, while each of those boats that allegedly tried to reach U.S. territory with narcotics has been taken down.
Regarding the location of the attacks, he clarified that "it is not just land attacks in Venezuela. It is land attacks against horrible people who bring drugs and kill" his people. "It doesn't necessarily have to be in Venezuela. It is the people who bring drugs to our country who are the targets," he insisted.
Earlier today, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López reiterated that his country will never under any circumstances give up defending its sovereignty.
"The U.S. government must know that we will not surrender. It is historically impossible for us to surrender, after the lessons of history we have, given by our liberators," the senior official warned in a televised speech.
The also sectoral vice president for Defense and Sovereignty also denounced that with the new White House National Security Strategy, "they intend to close the Caribbean to U.S. interests, to politically dominate states, to steal and appropriate the natural resources of the hemisphere, especially South America."
Since last August, the U.S. has maintained a significant military force deployed off the coast of Venezuela, justifying it as part of the anti-drug fight. Washington later announced Operation Southern Lance, with the official purpose of eliminating narcoterrorists from the Western Hemisphere and protecting the U.S. from drugs that are killing its citizens. Furthermore, Trump has stated that, for these purposes, he will soon launch land aggressions.
As part of these operations, bombings have been carried out against alleged drug traffickers' vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, resulting in more than 80 people dead and without evidence that they were actually trafficking drugs.
In an escalation of U.S. violent actions in the region, U.S. military personnel assaulted an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast. Caracas categorized the incident as a blatant robbery and an act of international piracy. Meanwhile, Maduro called the situation an absolutely criminal and illegal act and accused the White House of acting as Caribbean pirates against a merchant, commercial, civil, private vessel, a ship of peace.
Washington has accused, without presenting evidence, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading a drug trafficking cartel and has doubled the reward for his capture.
Maduro denounces that the real U.S. goal is a regime change to seize Venezuela's immense oil and gas wealth. "Their mask has fallen off; drug trafficking is fake news, it is the oil they want to steal," he said after the assault on a tanker with Venezuelan crude in Caribbean waters.
Lack of substantiation: The UN and the DEA itself point out that Venezuela is not a major route for drug trafficking to U.S. soil, as more than 80% of drugs use the Pacific route.
International condemnation: Russia, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the governments of Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil have condemned U.S. actions. Experts describe the attacks on vessels as summary executions that violate international law. (Text and photo: RT)
