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Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro warned that his country must “stand like warriors … ready to smash the teeth of the North American empire” Wednesday, a moment that coincided with the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
Maduro delivered the remarks while holding the sword of Simón Bolívar at a rally where video showed him singing and dancing to a recording of American singer Bobby McFerrin’s late-80s hit, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Maduro told supporters that Venezuelans must stay alert as tensions with Washington escalate.
“In these times, things have to be different, but we must always stand like warriors, women and men,” he said in a translated interpretation. “With one eye wide open — and the other one too — working, producing, building, keeping everything running, and ready to smash the teeth of the North American empire if necessary, from Bolivar’s homeland.”
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the U.S. had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, sharply escalating tensions with Caracas. The tanker was taken for allegedly transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
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Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry condemned the move in an official statement, calling it “a brazen robbery and an act of international piracy” and accusing Trump of openly pursuing a plan to “take Venezuelan oil without paying anything in return.”
The ministry said the action fits into what it described as a longstanding U.S. effort to plunder the country’s natural resources and compared the episode to the loss of Citgo Petroleum Corp., which Caracas claims was seized through “fraudulent judicial mechanisms.”
The statement argued that “the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela” have nothing to do with migration, drug trafficking, democracy, or human rights, insisting “it has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy.”
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It also accused Washington of using the tanker incident to distract from what it described as the failure of political efforts in Oslo by groups seeking Maduro’s removal.
Caracas urged Venezuelans to “remain firm in defense of the homeland” and called on the international community to reject what it described as “vandalistic, illegal and unprecedented aggression.”
The government said it will take its complaint to all available international bodies and vowed to protect the country’s sovereignty and control over its energy assets, declaring that “Venezuela will not allow any foreign power to attempt to seize from the Venezuelan people what belongs to them by historical and constitutional right.”
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Tensions between the two countries have grown following months of U.S. maritime strikes that Washington says targeted vessels used by drug traffickers to transport narcotics.
Reuters has reported that more than 80 people have been killed since September, and a separate Reuters report detailed heightened surveillance and security crackdowns in coastal communities affected by the strikes.
Late last month, Maduro appeared at a mass rally in Caracas holding the sword of Simón Bolívar as he warned supporters to brace for “imperialist aggression,” delivering a defiant address after Trump said the U.S. will “very soon” begin stopping suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers on land.
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Trump said he had not ruled out sending U.S. troops to Venezuela as part of the administration’s crackdown on criminal networks tied to senior figures in Caracas.
“No, I don’t rule out that. I don’t rule out anything,” he said.
He also left room for potential talks.
“We may be having some conversations with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out. They would like to talk,” Trump told reporters over the weekend.
Since early September, U.S. strikes across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have destroyed dozens of vessels. U.S. officials say many were linked to Venezuelan and Colombian criminal groups.
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Maduro appeared at last month’s rally holding the sword of Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century independence leader regarded as the liberator of much of South America. He told supporters the country was facing a decisive moment.
Fox News’ Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.
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