They want to get their hands on Venezuela’s oil and gold – Ambassador Perez

The main objective of the external forces working against the government of Venezuela is to put their hands on that country’s oil, gold and other resources.

So said head of the Mission at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) at a recent press conference.

Ambassador Francisco M Perez Santana stated that the current attacks on Venezuela are part of a long history of attacks on legitimately elected governments.

He spoke about the failed coup d’état attempt on April 11 2002 that saw President Hugo Chávez ousted from office for 47 hours before being restored to power, and noted that 17 years later, a similar thing is being tried, assisted by the same players, the media and the government of the United States (US) among others.

Ambassador Santana noted that the only difference between the persons involved is that in 2002, the US was led by president George W Bush, but now it is being led by Donald Trump.

In January, Juan Guaidó, a Venezuelan engineer and politician serving as the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, declared himself interim president of Venezuela in a co-ordinated move supported by the USA. Guaidó who has never won or contested an election has called on President Nicolás Maduro to hold presidential elections and countries including the USA, the United Kingdom (UK), Spain, France, Germany, Sweden and Denmark has recognised Guaidó.

Earlier this month, Ambassador Santana who played several video clips to support the claim that the US and other countries are out to grab their oil and other resources, said that the US continues to try to overthrow the legitimate government although elections were held and the leaders the people want were elected.

He noted that the media is playing a role in painting Venezuela as a bad place where the government is corrupt, but the facts usually show that there is a lot of fake news being broadcast.

Ambassador Santana noted that the power outage in the country which has persisted in some areas and has even led to death is being aided by the USA and not Maduro.

“The United States, the government of Trump have the money and the power, and they say they declare that all the options on the table and they are using all the options. What are the options? Cyberattacks, bombs, some plant the sanctions, the financial blockade, the boycott against our oil and we have the news… that they put sanctions against six international country for a number of vessels that transport our oil,” said Ambassador Santana who added that Venezuela is suffering from a big boycott against PDVSA.

PDVSA is Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company.

He stressed that it is obvious if sanctions exist against things that are produced to support the economy, there will be no money coming into the country and there will be no resources coming into the country.

“We have to resist all the strategies that the United States and all the extremely right-wing opposition leaders are taking against our process and our people,” said the Ambassador.

He said that Venezuela is trying to fight the outside attacks with help from partners like Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and other friends.
“The sanctions that the United States put in place against Venezuela are affecting the people of Venezuela in the way of death. People are dying because of the sanction, people also have malnutrition because of the sanction, and we have lack of some kind of medicine and food,” said the Ambassador who added that a similar thing was done with Cuba by the USA.

He said that while some persons refer to them as sanctions, it is really a robbery as is evident with the Bank of England’s decision to withhold $1.2 billion of Venezuela’s gold from president Maduro. The $1.2 billion of gold is a huge part of the $8 billion in foreign reserves held by the Venezuelan central bank.

“That is what the United States wants with Venezuela, just the gold, oil and our resources,” stressed Ambassador Santana who added that despite the sanctions, the support of the Venezuelan people for Maduro is increasing.