William Castillo, Vice Minister for Anti-Blockade Policies, stated that Venezuela has been able to confront unilateral coercive measures under the leadership of President Nicolás Maduro and has designed anti-blockade mechanisms to overcome them: «Building with its own muscle all the tools to face everything that comes its way. No one is going to come to scare Venezuela or pressure it with oil, because it has every opportunity to face any obstacle.»
Castillo affirmed that Venezuela is a country that has endured, since 2014, 1,028 unilateral coercive measures, seizures and blockades of its assets, and blockades of its oil and food, and “so far has resisted that blockade and is recovering.»
He stated that the maximum pressure strategy implemented by the United States government will clash with an international, geopolitical, and, above all, domestic reality.
He also emphasized that «there is a sanctions industry profiting from Citgo’s assets. No one knows what accounts they have and how much money has been stolen from the Central Bank of Venezuela with the money blocked from 29 banks that have been stolen from Venezuela around the world, and that money is managed as if by the United States and the supposed interim National Assembly,» he explained.
Castillo stated that «Venezuela does not recognize any unilateral coercive measures in its constitution; they are not valid for us, and we have designed anti-blockade mechanisms» through economic policies, the International Center for Productive Investment, and the pursuit of partnerships and alliances for all sectors «with the construction of cooperation routes and the strengthening of existing pacts with sovereign countries that do not accept these actions.»
Confrontation:
William Castillo emphasized that Venezuela’s migration and oil issues have currently become part of the internal and negotiating agenda of the United States Congress:
«It’s no secret that Donald Trump is clashing with a segment of the Republican Party and that foreign issues are being used for negotiations within the US Congress,» he stated.
He asserted that there is an international agenda and a tactic that consists of pressuring countries and humiliating them in an attempt to negotiate so they can get what they want.
