Washington has opened its checkbook to a collection of crooks and liars in order to destabilize Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro has claimed.
The US has refused to recognize Venezuela’s 2024 elections, calling them rigged and undemocratic. Maduro, who is scheduled to be sworn in to a third term in office on Friday, has accused Washington of funding “corrupt and delinquent” former leaders across Latin America to harm Caracas.
“Every word, every little message, every act, every plane ticket – pay, pay, pay, and the outgoing US government and the US State Department is there with an open checkbook,” Maduro said on Wednesday.
He took special aim at the Lima Group, an informal pact of 12 governments backing the US policy of isolating Venezuela since 2017.
“We confronted them, we resisted, we defeated them, and one by one they fell, they all dried up, one by one, and where is the Lima Group? Who remembers it?” Maduro said. “Now they want to revive the Sodom and Gomorrah group of groveling governments and former presidents who are pedophiles, corrupt, drug addicts and drug traffickers.”
“Enough of interventionism, enough of extremism, enough of Lima groups,” the Venezuelan leader added.
On Tuesday, Maduro announced the capture of seven “mercenaries,” including two US nationals, two Colombians and three Ukrainians. The authorities in Caracas have accused them of plotting “terrorist actions” against Venezuelan infrastructure as well as Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.
According to Maduro, another 125 militants from 25 countries have been detained by Venezuelan authorities since November.
”They are of the highest level, like never before captured in Venezuela,” the president said of the detained Americans.
Then-president Donald Trump spearheaded the effort to oust Maduro in 2019, backing opposition politician Juan Guaido who had declared himself the “interim president” of Venezuela. The US did not change its policy under President Joe Biden, continuing to claim that Maduro was illegitimate and maintaining sanctions on Caracas. Guaido’s effort ultimately failed and he fled to the US in October 2023.
