Venezuela’s Maduro says Trump's comments on land and oil reveal his true motives

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said today that Donald Trump revealed his true motives toward the South American country with his claim that it had stolen US “oil, land and other assets.”

Maduro said Trump’s claim showed the US was really seeking regime change along with ownership of Venezuela’s territory and resources. Previously, the US has characterized its build-up of naval forces near the country as aimed at combating drug-trafficking.

“It is simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense, and we have said so many times, and now everyone sees the truth. The truth has been revealed,” Maduro said.
“The aim in Venezuela is a regime change to impose a puppet government that wouldn’t last 47 hours, that would hand over the Constitution, sovereignty, and all the wealth, turning Venezuela into a colony. It will simply never happen,” he continued.

Trump told reporters that Venezuela had illegally taken away “energy rights” and that the US wanted them back. “We’re getting land, oil rights, whatever we had. They took it away because we had a president that maybe wasn’t watching. But they’re not going to do that. We want it back. They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. As you know, they threw our companies out and we want it back.”