MOSCOW, Dec. 18 \u2014 Russia on Thursday urged the U.S. administration not to make a \u201cfatal mistake\u201d on Venezuela, warning of unpredictable consequences for the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Washington to \u201crefrain from further escalating the situation, which could lead to unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ministry reiterated Russia\u2019s support for the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, emphasizing the need to protect national interests and sovereignty and to ensure that Latin America remains a zone of peace.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Republican-majority House of Representatives voted 213 to 211 against a resolution directing the president to remove US forces from hostilities with or against Venezuela without congressional authorisation.<\/p>\n
The House also voted 216 to 210 against a resolution that would remove US forces from hostilities with \u201cany presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere\u201d unless authorised by Congress.<\/p>\n
The defeat of the resolutions comes as a huge US military deployment is under way in Latin America, involving thousands of troops, Washington\u2019s largest aircraft carrier, and a nuclear-powered submarine, as Trump threatens military action to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trump ordered a naval blockade of all oil tankers, which are under US sanctions, entering and leaving Venezuelan ports, a move that Maduro\u2019s government called a \u201cgrotesque threat\u201d that was aimed at \u201cstealing the riches that belong to our homeland\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Venezuela, Maduro held a phone call with UN chief Guterres and denounced the US naval blockade, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Maduro \u201cdenounced \u2026 the recent escalation of colonial threats against Venezuela\u201d, the Agencia Venezuela news site reported.<\/p>\n
The Venezuelan leader also described as \u201cbarbaric diplomacy\u201d comments by US administration officials that \u201cVenezuela\u2019s natural resources belong to it\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW, Dec. 18 \u2014 Russia on Thursday urged the U.S. administration not to make a \u201cfatal mistake\u201d on Venezuela, warning of unpredictable consequences for the Western Hemisphere. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Washington to \u201crefrain from further escalating the situation, which could lead to unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}