The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations took up a megaphone and addressed protesters calling for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro outside the U.N. building in New York on Thursday.
“We are going to fight for Venezuela and we are going to continue doing it until Maduro is gone!” Nikki Haley shouted from the megaphone, according to a report by AFP.
“We need your voices to be loud, and I will tell you, the U.S. voice is going to be loud,” she said.
The unusual move comes a day after Maduro derided the U.S. as “imperialist” during a speech to the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Maduro and other members of his regime, including his wife.
Maduro, who has asked to meet with President Trump, has insisted there is no humanitarian crisis in his country. “World media is trying to fabricate a migration crisis in Venezuela to justify what was perhaps being called a ‘humanitarian intervention,’” he said during an appearance at the U.N., his first since 2015. “There is a media campaign against us which seems to go on and on, endlessly.”
Trump criticized Maduro’s socialist regime and called for the restoration of democracy in the country in his speech to the international body Tuesday. “Not long ago, Venezuela was one of the richest countries on Earth. Today, socialism has bankrupted the oil-rich nation and driven its people into abject poverty,” he said.
“Virtually everywhere socialism or communism has been tried, it has produced suffering, corruption, and decay,” said Trump. “Socialism’s thirst for power leads to expansion, incursion, and oppression. All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery that it brings to everyone.”
