United Nations, Sep 25 (EFE).- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza denounced Monday before the United Nations what he called the unilateral and illegal actions of US President Donald Trump.
“As if he were the world’s emperor, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, used this podium built for peace to announce wars, total destruction of member states, application of unilateral and illegal coercive measures, threatening and judging as if he had absolute, dictatorial powers over the sovereign member states of our organization,” the Venezuelan foreign minister said in his address.
Arreaza specifically slammed the “illegal” economic sanctions imposed by the White House on Venezuela last August, and warned that while “we’re open to dialogue” with the United States, his country “can respond to attacks.”
After his speech, Venezuela’s foreign minister also referred during a press conference to the latest US travel ban – “the tougher, the better” in Trump’s words – against Venezuela and another eight countries as a means, the US president said, “to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people,”
“We have to stop the madness and the irrationality,” was Arreaza’s response.
During his speech, he recalled the words of former President Hugo Chavez that in the UN he detected “the smell of sulphur,” and said “it is still the case that this podium smells like sulphur” because the UN is again disrespected by arrogant powers that try to impose their unilateral rules of the game.
He therefore urged the United Nations to create effective mechanisms to neutralize the warlike ambitions and attempts to replace multilateralism with dictatorial unilateralism by those who threaten the use of arms and economic blackmail.
Arreaza also denounced those who accuse his country of not respecting human rights and said that if there is one nation that has no right to be on the UN Human Rights Council it is precisely the US because “undoubtedly, the United States is the main human rights violator in the world.”