The Venezuelan government warned the United States that it will move formward with the Constituent Assembly election, despite the threat of economic sanctions as part of a growing international pressure that seeks to force President Nicolás Maduro to stop his initiative.
Maduro met on Tuesday with representatives of state powers “to fully respond to the imperial threat,” he announced on Twitter.
Nothing and nobody can stop it, the Constituent is a reality. Today the Venezuelan people are free and will respond united to the insolent threat posed by a xenophobic and racist empire,”
said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada in a public statement.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would “take swift and strong economic measures” if Maduro persists in the July 30th election of the Constituent Assembly, which the opposition calls a fraud of chavismo to perpetuate itself in power and turn Venezuela into “another Cuba”.
The United States will not remain passive while Venezuela crumbles,”
the US official said in an official statement, without specifying the measures.
According to Trump, although 7.6 million Venezuelans voted against the Constituent Assembly on Sunday in a symbolic plebiscite organized by the opposition, those actions are “ignored by a poor leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.”
The oil country, plunged into an economic crisis by falling oil prices, exports to the United States some 800,000 barrels a day (bpd) out of a production reported by state oil company PDVSA at 1,972,000 bpd.