Maria Lourdes Urbaneja said Washington’s hostility toward her country is rooted in its desire to control Venezuela’s natural resources.
In response to U.S. threats to impose a new round of sanctions on Venezuela simply because its sovereign, democratically-elected government has called for a National Constituent Assembly, Maria Lourdes Urbaneja, Venezuela’s ambassador to Mexico, published a scathing response in the daily Mexican newspaper La Jornada.
Urbaneja described the election of delegates campaigning to become constituent members, and the process in its entirety, as being an exercise in popular democracy at its finest and “without tutelage or impositions.”
Following that line of rationale, she concluded that the will of the Venezuelan people represent a clear threat to advocates of free markets, privatizations and austerity measures that affect, first and foremost, the working class.
She accused Washington of being belligerent toward her country because it wants to regain control of Venezuela’s proven hydrocarbon reserves — the largest on the planet — as well as its reserves of gold, cobalt, hydraulic potential and other natural resources.
Urbaneja stressed that the political, diplomatic, economic, and media war waged against her country has reached its climax despite the past 19 free, democratic elections which have resulted in a majority of votes favoring the Bolivarian Revolutionary government.
Over the weekend, Venezuela’s former foreign minister, and now a candidate for the National Constituent Assembly, Delcy Rodriguez, reiterated that as soon as the Constituent Assembly is installed, positive decisions will be taken to bring peace to the country.
Speaking in the west of the capital Caracas, Rodriguez said, “Let’s call all those colleagues to vote, because the Constituent Assembly is for everyone, and we have the right to a diversified, productive economic model, for the future of younger generations, for justice to be done” added Rodríguez.
She added that “There will be no intervention, there will be no war, there will be a Constituent Assembly.”
Although some anti-government groups have chosen to boycott the process, reportedly the majority of Venezuelans throughout the country are preparing to take part in the vote.
Responding to opposition objections to the ANC, Rodriguez and President Nicolas Maduro have said that the real plan behind the protests is to instigate widespread chaos which would further destabilize the country, with foreign intervention and the toppling of the Bolivarian government being the end game.
In a legal mechanism aimed at stemming violent attacks by the right-wing opposition and fostering a national dialogue to rewrite the constitution, elections for 545 representatives to the body will be held on July 30.
Prensa Latina
by teleSUR / jc-RT
teleSUR, July 23 2017
