Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a consistent opponent of President Donald Trump on foreign policy since the beginning of his second administration, made an explicit call for the United Nations to intervene against U.S. military operations in the region.
Trump’s saber-rattling against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has exasperated political divisions in South America, with some leaders welcoming military action and others pleading for international protection.
“I call on the United Nations to fulfill its role. It has not been present. It must assume its role to prevent any bloodshed,” Sheinbaum said on Wednesday morning during a press conference. “The entire world must ensure that there is no intervention and that there is a peaceful solution.”
Trump designated the Venezuelan government as a foreign terrorist organization on Tuesday, accusing the Maduro government of supporting “terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.”
Trump has enacted a “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela” as a means of leverage against the Maduro regime, citing the 2007 nationalization of oil assets owned by the United States and other foreign nations by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
“All of which,” Trump ordered, “must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY.”
“Because of President Trump’s declaration and the situation in Venezuela, we reiterate Mexico’s position, in accordance with the Constitution, of non-intervention or foreign interference, self-determination of peoples, and peaceful resolution of disputes,” Sheinbaum explained.
She added, This is our position, based on conviction and the Constitution. It must be the position of any Mexican president, regardless of the opinions of the Venezuelan regime and the Maduro presidency.”
A government statement from Venezuela on Tuesday called the “irrational military blockade” a “grotesque threat.”
The U.S.’s naval blockade affects sanctioned oil tankers in Venezuelan waters. A full blockade would be illegal, unless in response to an attack.
However, not all leaders are as opposed to the White House’s high-handed management of South American geopolitics, dubbed the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine by officials.
Chilean President-elect Antonio Kast, widely seen as an analogue to Trump’s brand of right-wing populism, has vocally supported a hypothetical military action against the Maduro regime.
“Clearly, we cannot intervene in that because we are a small country,” Kast said on Tuesday. “But if someone is going to do it, let it be clear to them that they would solve for us, and for all of Latin America, for all of South America, a giant problem.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, an arch-critic of Trump-era interventionism in Latin America, has lambasted Kast as a “Nazi” and a “fascist,” calling him and his political project “death in human form.”
Petro’s comments forced him into a difficult situation after a reporter on social media demanded to know why the Colombian leader has so vociferously condemned Kast while failing to acknowledge Maduro as a “narco-dictator.”
“Maduro is a dictator for concentrating powers; there is no evidence in Colombia that he is a narco. That is a narrative of the USA,” Petro responded Tuesday on social media — a statement notable for its use of the word “dictator,” given Colombia and Venezuela’s historic alliance against U.S. aggression.
WILES SAYS VENEZUELA STRIKES WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MADURO ‘CRIES UNCLE’
“Kast is the son and believer of the Nazis,” Petro continued. “He belongs to the German generation that escaped from Germany not to save themselves from Hitler but to save themselves from Hitler’s defeat, which is very, very different.”
A government statement from Venezuela on Tuesday called the “irrational military blockade” a “grotesque threat.”
