- Coat of Arms –
NICOLÁS MADURO MOROS
PRESIDENT OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA
Caracas, 29th March 2020

In greeting you, with affection, I take the liberty of addressing you
on the occasion of denouncing the severe events taking place against
the peace and stability of Venezuela, at a time when the concern of
the States and Governments should be focused on the protection of
the life and health of their citizens, due to the acceleration of the
COVID-19 pandemic.

As it is publicly known, last March 26, the government of the
United States announced a very serious action against a group of high
officials of the Venezuelan State, including the Constitutional
President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro.
This action consisted in the presentation of a formal accusation
before the American judicial system, which is not only by illegal in
itself, by also seeks to support a false accusation of drug trafficking
and terrorism, with the sole objective of simulating the alleged
judicialization of the Venezuelan authorities.
This American performance includes the unusual offer of an
international reward to anyone who provides information about the
President and the high Venezuelan officials, leading to a dangerous
moment of tension in the continent. I therefore consider it necessary to
make an account of the facts, which reveal the perverse plot behind
the accusations of the Department of Justice.

Just one day before, on March 25, the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela denounced before national and international public opinion
the development in Colombian territory of a operation aimed at
attempting against the life of President of the Republic, Nicolás
Maduro Moros, his family members and high State officials; as well as
attacking civil and military objectives in our country, accusing Mr.
Clíver Alcalá, a retired general of the Venezuelan armed forces, of
being the military chief of that operation.
This denounce was made with all responsibility, after a control
operation in the road to the north of Colombia, near the border with
Venezuela, was announced on March 24, in which the police of that
country captured a batch or war weapons in a civilian vehicle.
The investigations revealed that it was a sophisticated arsenal
aimed at a group of former Venezuelan and Colombian military and
paramilitary personnel who were training in camps located in
Colombian territory.

On March 26, the aforementioned Clíver Alcalá, gave a
statement to a Colombian media outlet -from his residence in the city
of Barranquilla, Colombia- in which he confirmed his participation in
the reported events, confessing to being the military leader of the
operation and revealing that the weapons were purchased by order of
Mr. Juan Guaidó, national deputy, who calls himself interim President
of Venezuela and serves as Washington's operator in the country. He
also confirmed that the weapons were intended to carry out a military
operation to assassinate senior members of the Venezuelan State and
Government and to produce a coup d'état in Venezuela.
Mr. Alcalá clarified that the weapons were purchased through a
contract signed by himself, Mr. Juan Guaidó, U.S. advisors and Mr.
Juan José Rendón, political advisor to President Iván Duque, and
carried out with the knowledge of Colombian government authorities.
In the face of this confession, the unusual response of the United
States government has been the publication of the accusations
mentioned at the beginning of this letter, with the extravagant inclusion
of the name of Mr. Alcalá, as if he were part of the Venezuelan
aucthorities and not a mercenary hired by the United States to carry
out a terrorist operation against the Venezuelan government.

As a demonstration of this statement, I need no more proof than
to mention the alleged capture of Mr. Alcalá by Colombian security
forces and his immediate surrender to U.S. DEA authorities, in a
curious act in which the prisoner, without handcuffs, was shaking
hands with his captors, right in front of the stairs of the plane that
would take him on a special VIP flight to the United States, which
shows that in reality this whole set-up is about the rescue of someone
they consider a U.S. agent.
It must be stressed that the unsuccessful armed operation was
originally designed to be executed at the end of this month, while all of
Venezuela is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Actually, this is
precisely the main battle that concerns humanity today.
A battle that our nation is successfully waging, having managed
to stop the contagion curve, reinforcing health provisions and keeping
the population in a massive quarantine, with a low number of positive
cases and deaths.
For all these reasons, the Government of the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela alerts our brothers and sisters of political organizations
and social movements around the world about the reckless and
criminal steps being taken by the administration of Donald Trump
which, despite the frightening acceleration of the growth of COVID-19
affecting the American people, seems determined to deepen its policy
of aggression against sovereign states in the region, and especially
against the Venezuelan people.

During the pandemic, the U.S. government, instead of focusing
on policies of global cooperation in health and prevention, has
increased unilateral coercive measures, has rejected the requests
from the international community to lift or make flexible the illegal
sanctions that prevent Venezuela from accessing medicines, medical
equipment and food.
At the same time, it has banned humanitarian flights from the
United States to Venezuela to repatriate hundreds of Venezuelans
trapped in the economic and health crisis in the northern country.
By denouncing these serious facts, Venezuela ratifies its
unwavering will to maintain a relationship of respect and cooperation
with all nations, especially in this unprecedented circumstance that
forces responsible governments to work together and put aside their
differences, as is the case with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under such serious circumstances, I request your invaluable
support in the face of this unusual and arbitrary persecution, executed
through a new version of that rancid McCarthyism unleashed after
World War II. At that time, they willingly labeled their adversaries as
Communists in order to persecute them; today they do so by means of
the whimsical categories of terrorists or drug traffickers, without having
any evidence whatsoever.

Condemning and neutralizing today these unjustifiable attacks
against Venezuela will be very useful to prevent Washington from
launching similar campaigns against other peoples and governments
of the world tomorrow. We must all adhere to the principles of the
United Nations Charter, to prevent excessive unilateralism from
leading to international chaos.
Brothers and sisters of the world, you can be absolutely sure that
Venezuela will stand firm in its fight for peace and that, under any
circumstances, it will prevail. No imperialist aggression, however
ferocious it may be, will divert us from the sovereign and independent
path that we have forged for 200 years, nor will it distance us from the
sacred obligation to preserve the life and health of our people in the
face of the frightening global pandemic of COVID-19.
 
I take this opportunity to express my solidarity and that of the
people of Venezuela to all the peoples who today also suffer serious
consequences from the effects of the pandemic. If we are obliged to
draw any lesson from all this difficult experience, it is precisely that
only together we can move forward. The political and economic
models that advocate selfishness and individualism have
demonstrated their total failure to face this situation. Let us firmly
advance towards a new World with justice and social equality, in
which the happiness and fullness of the human being is the center of
our actions.

I appreciate the solidarity that you have permanently expressed
towards my country and my people, denouncing the criminal blockade
to which we and many other nations are subjected. I take this
opportunity to reiterate my respect and affection, and to invite you to
continue united, plowing a future of hope and dignity.

 
Nicolás Maduro Moros