03/06/2008
The U.S. launches intrigues to create conflicts among fraternal peoples’

“Negroponte has come out in defense of the conspiracies the empire is trying to sow in our countries – its single aim being to create a conflict among fraternal nations such as Colombia and Venezuela. The United States is behind all these conspiracies trying to blame factors outside of Colombia of being guardians to the FARC.” 

This was the response given by the Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro, to the U.S. State Department second in charged, John Negroponte, who affirmed on Monday that “there’s no doubt” Colombian rebels have sought refuge in Venezuela. 

At the 38th General Assembly, held in Medellin, Colombia, the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister, pointed out that the United States can not accept that Venezuela and Colombia shake hands. “They do not accept it; that’s the reason why he (Negroponte) seems desperate and is stirring up trouble in the media, after seeing images of the meeting between the Colombian and Venezuelan foreign affairs minister, but the Colombian people do not believe the headlines.”

Likewise, he described the U.S. official as “having a criminal record and being the perpetrator of disappearances, tortures and deaths in Central America and other parts of the world (…) He is the representative of the United States to the Organization of American States in this General Assembly. The U.S. Foreign Affairs Service has degraded itself to such a point that it has a ‘little official’ such as Negroponte with a criminal record as its representative.”

Maduro also warned the Colombian people and government so that they realize that behind all this plotting campaign “there is one single objective: to divide us, make us fight, and create conflict. Let this campaign stop! That’s our call! Let the divisive, conspiracy-making and evil campaign stop. Venezuela is a country with a very clear attitude towards the governments of the continent. Venezuela holds the flag of peoples’ sovereignty and self-determination very high; and it has been hard for us to raise it when facing the empire’s attempts to control the continent.”