The South African government has called on the UN Security Council, the body mandated to maintain international peace and security, to urgently convene to address the situation in Venezuela. This is after theUS conducted “a large-scale military strike” against Venezuelaandcaptured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were flown out of the country yesterday. The department of international relations & cooperation spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said Pretoria viewed US actions as a manifest violation of the UN Charter, which mandates that all member states refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
Phiri said the charter did not authorise external military intervention in matters that were essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of a sovereign nation. “History has repeatedly demonstrated that military invasions against sovereign states yield only instability and deepening crisis. Unlawful, unilateral force of this nature undermines the stability of the international order and the principle of equality among nations,” he said.
It won’t cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial. The oil companies are going to go in; they’re going to spend money there. Then we’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago Trump later told journalists Maduro was in custody and that American officials would take control of Venezuela until a proper transition takes place.
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“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said. ”We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.” Asked how the US will run Venezuela and whether it will send troops to that country, Trump said: “We are not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level, actually.
We’re not afraid of it.” He said the people that were standing behind him were going to run Venezuela for some time. Then we’re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago,” said Trump. “A lot of money is coming out of the ground.
We’re going to get reimbursed for all of that. We’re going to get reimbursed for everything that we spent.”
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