About two million Venezuelans signed a letter in which the United States urged to refuse to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. This was told by the President of the Bolivarian Republic, Nicolas Maduro.
“In less than 24 hours, two million Venezuelans have already signed a peace letter,” he said at a press conference for the Venezuelan and foreign media.
In total, the authorities intend to collect at least 10 million signatures. Maduro also stressed that Venezuela will continue to defend its sovereignty and democracy, despite opposition from the United States.
“For us, the day has come for the defense of democracy, the defense of national sovereignty, the defense of the right to peace,” Maduro said. “Attempts to destabilize the country failed, the Venezuelan people are determined to fight for their independence and the right to peace.”
- Reuters
- © Carlos Garcia Rawlins
“Dialogue should be popular”
In addition, Maduro said that Caracas supports the so-called "Montevideo mechanism" - a proposal to build a dialogue between the opposition and the authorities of Venezuela, drawn up by the International Contact Group (ICG) in the Uruguayan capital.
The “Montevidno Mechanism” in a respectful manner moves the dialogue between the Venezuelans with the help of our Latin American and Caribbean brothers. We are ready to immediately support any action that leads to dialogue, understanding between Venezuelans, ”RIA Novosti quotes him.
However, Maduro noted that the final statement of the ICG Venezuela refuses to sign, because it does not "obey the ideologization of international relations."
“We refuse to sign this document, we do not recognize it,” TASS quotes it. “The dialogue should be popular”
Recall, on February 7, an international conference began in Montevideo. The European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Sweden, Great Britain, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uruguay and the countries of the Caribbean Community took part in it.
“The international contact group intends to perform two tasks. It will be in close contact with the players in the country, the region and the world to provide guarantees for the early holding of democratic and free presidential elections, as well as to ensure the prompt delivery of humanitarian aid, ”said Federica Mogherini, head of European diplomacy.
Venezuelan agency AVN reports that the “Montevideo mechanism” consists of a four-phase dialogue. During the implementation of the first stage, the conditions for dialogue should be created. The second stage is to conduct the negotiations themselves. During the third part, agreements between the parties will be concluded, and at the end these agreements will be implemented with international support.
It is noteworthy that the United States did not participate in the conference and urged other countries to refuse to participate in it. A corresponding statement was made by the United States Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams.
“Do not fall into the trap that Maduro had previously set many times when it comes to fake dialogue, instead of sending Maduro a clear signal that he should leave. We are not interested in joining the contact group, ”RIA Novosti quotes him.
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry reminded that Maduro remains the only legitimate president of Venezuela. This was announced on February 8 by the head of the Latin American department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Schetinin.
"In Venezuela, there is a legitimate president - Nicolas Maduro, and only the people of this country should decide the question of their leaders in accordance with national legislative procedures," - RIA Novosti quotes him.
"The US is conducting an operation to put a puppet"
Recall that in Venezuela, from January 23, the political crisis continues. On this day, the speaker of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, declared himself the interim president. The Supreme Court of the Bolivarian Republic called these actions of the parliamentarian illegal.
Nicolas Maduro called the incident an attempted coup d'état, carried out with the support of the United States.
“We are going to fight and to the victory of life, democracy, the future. We announced and approved today that the US imperialist government is conducting an operation in order to put the puppet in Venezuela in power in its own interests, ”he stressed.
At the same time, according to Maduro, the United States, with the help of sanctions and an economic blockade, staged a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
"The humanitarian crisis is only a cover for the military plans of the government (US President Donald. - RT ) Trump," he said. “The whole crisis in Venezuela is that the US imposed sanctions and imposed a financial blockade.”