Venezuelan Defense Minister to U.S.: "We Will Fight if You Dare to Set Foot in Venezuela"

Venezuelan Defense Minister, Major General Vladimir Padrino López, stated this Sunday that the entire world rejects the threats made by the U.S. against the homeland of Bolívar and Chávez. He highlighted the massive public mobilization over the past two weekends, where hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily enlisted in the Bolivarian Militia and demonstrated their determination to defend national sovereignty at any cost.

During a televised address, Padrino López stated, "We are preparing for any aggression that may occur from the U.S. against our sacred sovereignty. We are preparing, and we will fight if you set foot in Venezuela," emphasized the official, who insisted that his country is free from drug trafficking, is a containment barrier against this activity, and that Venezuela is a zone of peace.

He emphasized that they are prepared to confront any threat, of any magnitude. He called on the international community to work for peace and against war, for respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. Domestically, he expressed that there is no room for disunity. "We go into battle for our truth," he said.

He noted that the current U.S. Administration has used very aggressive language against other nations, including Denmark—to gain control of Greenland—Canada, and Panama, where Yankee troops were deployed again in the interoceanic canal. He even mentioned that they tried to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico and do not disguise their intention to seize the Caribbean Sea and establish their hegemony.

He questioned how the nation with the most resources and the largest intelligence community fails to make substantial progress in confronting drug trafficking and, at the same time, tries to set itself up as a judge and label Venezuela as a narco-state. He emphasized that the real narco-state is in the north and that drug trafficking is a lubricant for its economy.

He reflected that the imperialist siege has strengthened the people and prepared them for a situation like the present, where the U.S. attempts to defame the institutional political leadership of the Venezuelan homeland by trying to link it with drug trafficking—a fabricated and gray narrative, he opined, to generate a pretext for armed intervention.

He highlighted that during the "Yo Me Alisto" (I Enlist) campaign, the people were accompanied by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), all with full patriotic awareness and in rejection of the "surrendering" attitudes of opposition sectors that desire the destruction of the country. "We will now move on to the phase of preparing the people," he advanced.

He recalled that Venezuela has been under siege since the very beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution, which "is a military strategy" that has the approval of those opposition sectors that call for more sanctions and commercial blockades.