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Venezuela Under Attack · UK Column Radio

0:16
Hello and welcome to the UK column.
0:18
Today I'm joined by Jose Bimorji.
0:21
Jose is currently serving as Venezuelan Ambassador to Lebanon
0:24
and Syria and has previously served as Minister of Industries
0:27
and Production in the Venezuelan government.
0:29
Welcome to the programme, Jose. Yes, hello.
0:32
My first of all, thank you so much for this opportunity to
0:38
speak a little bit about Venezuela and bring the the true
0:43
of the Venezuelan people around the world.
0:46
Because as you know, the mainstream media used to
0:50
manipulate information everywhere and the algorithms in
0:54
the social media, they are playing a very bad job by hiding
0:59
the the information. No by shadow.
1:03
Shadow banned information that we have or we want to sell.
1:07
Venezuela has been in the news quite a bit in recent weeks
1:10
because President Trump has been has decided to bomb some boats,
1:13
which he claims are related to drug trafficking.
1:16
And now the threat is to bomb targets inside Venezuela itself.
1:19
So. So what's going on between the
1:21
United States regime and Venezuela at this point?
1:25
You know the difference between US and US.
1:28
They is started 200 years ago. It's not from now.
1:35
It started from the moment when we got the independence from
1:37
Spain. So we have, if we read the
1:41
history of Venezuela and United States from the moment that we
1:45
got independence from Spain, they, they start to treat us for
1:51
many reason, for many reason, they will never, ever forgive us
1:57
the fact that we bring the, the freedom to the, the Latin
2:04
American. We start with the freedom
2:06
process. So during the first mandate of
2:10
President Trump, he tried to support many coup d'etat against
2:18
Venezuela. We don't have to forget for
2:21
example the strong support that the the regime of President
2:26
Trump gave to to the self proclaimed President of
2:30
Venezuela, Juan Guaido in 2016. This aggression against
2:36
Venezuela started at the Obama times, the Nobel Peace Prize.
2:44
Obama who declared Venezuela as a treat for the United States in
2:49
2014. He start boot sanction on
2:52
Venezuela in 2015 and then from 2016 to 2020 during the first
3:01
period of Trump, they carried out a huge pressure strategy
3:09
against Venezuela that by blocking our resource, by frozen
3:16
our our account in around the world, by stolen our gold from
3:25
UK, by supporting the central county President Guaido, by
3:30
doing pressure on more than 60 countries around the world, 60
3:36
countries around the world that recognise Guaido.
3:40
And even even we don't have to forget that in 2020, if I
3:47
remember well, they tried to invade Venezuela throughout
3:52
Colombia at that time. And even the Vice President
3:56
Pence, he was in a in the border being cuckot in the border
4:02
between Venezuela and Colombia, trying to support an invasion,
4:06
invasion against Venezuela. So this is a policy that started
4:11
long time ago, but now they just changed the narrative.
4:16
Why? Because the opposition, the
4:20
extreme opposition in Venezuela, the at that time was Guaido,
4:25
this time is Maria Machado. They changed the actors, but
4:30
they are always the same fraction of this small, fairly
4:35
small part of the opposition in Venezuela, which is completely
4:40
extremist opposition and is subordinate, subordinated to to
4:47
United States. They are completely uncapable to
4:56
carry out a coup d'etat against our government.
5:00
No, So they don't have any capacity to do nothing.
5:04
They are completely new in Venezuela.
5:07
Well, that is why the President Trump, he changed his narrative
5:13
and now he's speaking about this extravagant history, about the
5:18
cartelo de Los soles and the narcos state, which is
5:22
completely crazy history. I think even in the United
5:26
States, the people doesn't believe in this history.
5:29
He's looking for the support of the Congress, the support of the
5:35
internal politics in USA in order to perform an aggression
5:42
against Venezuela. But he wasn't able.
5:46
And to finish with this part, it is important to mention that in
5:52
my opinion, I think it's completely clear this strategy
5:56
is planified. Let's see.
5:59
Or leaded by Marcos, Rubio more than the President Trump.
6:07
OK, but what's the reason for this?
6:08
And is this because he wants regime change to get rid of a
6:12
socialist government? Or is this because the US wants
6:15
access to oil and other raw materials?
6:18
I think it's both of them. It's both of them.
6:20
First of all, of course they are supporting a change regime in
6:23
Venezuela. They, if they can't put some
6:28
puppet like they have in another country, Latin America, they
6:33
will feel much better or happier than Nile.
6:37
But of course, the main aim or the main objective of the of any
6:46
regime in United State is to appropriate of our resource.
6:51
We don't have to forget that Venezuela has the biggest oil
6:55
reserve around the world. But also we have the gold, we
6:59
have aluminium, we have iron, we have gas, we have rare earth, we
7:07
have many, many resource. We have a lot of water and we
7:10
have a lot of land. So of course, the main objective
7:12
of any administration, US administration, is to put their
7:19
hand on our resource. Yeah, it's, it's interesting you
7:23
mentioned rare earths, because of course part of the argument
7:26
between the United States and China at the moment is over
7:29
access to rare earths. So what kind of rare earth
7:31
resources does Venezuela actually have?
7:34
We we have some of them, we are still exploring the the presence
7:39
of the rare earth. You know that the rare earth are
7:43
in in a very small amount in that is why the name is rare
7:48
earth. We have discovered around four
7:52
or five rare earth. Of course, the most difficult
7:56
part of the rare earth is not the extraction of sorry, it's
8:00
not the explosion is always is also the extraction of them.
8:05
But we are they are thinking in the in the future.
8:09
And you, you mentioned that Venezuela has the largest oil
8:12
reserves on the planet. That that's something I actually
8:14
didn't know. And looking at the statistics,
8:17
Venezuela apparently is more oil than Saudi Arabia.
8:20
So I can see why that would make Venezuela a significant target
8:23
for the United States. Yes, of course, we have more
8:28
than 300 billion barrel as a reserve and you know most of the
8:34
refineries in United States, they were built considering our
8:40
oil, the medium heavy oil, they need our oil.
8:44
So of course, the main interest of United States is always the
8:50
economy. Behind all of the war, behind
8:53
all of the treating, behind all of the strategy of United State,
8:57
That is the economy as we know. You mentioned Marco Rubio there.
9:02
Why do you think he's particularly interested in
9:04
regime change as opposed to, for example, others in the Trump
9:08
administration? Yes, because he is completely
9:11
obsessed against Venezuela, against Cuba, against Nicaragua.
9:17
You know that he's the boss of the Latin lobbying in Florida
9:23
and in Florida has a very important role in any election.
9:29
So next year there is the midterm election in your in US.
9:33
Apparently the number of the, the support in Florida is
9:38
decreasing for Trump. So he want to show the President
9:42
Trump that he is able to, to do something against Venezuela.
9:47
He's he's obsessive with, with Venezuela.
9:50
And my personal opinion, that's my personal opinion, there is a
9:54
big internal confrontation in the Trump administration.
9:58
There is 2 parts. There is the deep state part,
10:00
which is Marcos Rubio is part of this deep state.
10:04
And there is another part of the businessman, the new very
10:07
pragmatic businessman, that is the very rich people.
10:12
Marcos Rubio is not part of this establishment.
10:16
And there is a big confrontation between these two parts, between
10:20
the deep state and the new pragmatic rich people,
10:24
businessmen. So I think it's completely, it's
10:29
very clear that after Trump, one of the aspiration of Marcos,
10:34
Rubio and even Vans, they want to be the candidate for the
10:39
Republicans for the next election.
10:41
So there is a an internal issue and when US has some internal
10:48
programme, they used to look for an external enemy to distract
10:53
their population and their people.
10:54
But the problem is inside United States to add some information.
11:01
Why? How you can explain for example,
11:03
that after the President Trump reached an agreement with the
11:06
Venezuelan government, with the President Maduro to exchange
11:10
some people, the the young people immigrant that they sent
11:14
to El Salvador from United States.
11:18
We did an agreement to exchange those people for 10 criminals,
11:23
American criminals that that they were judged and they were
11:27
in the gaol in Venezuela. And after this agreement,
11:32
immediately the President Trump renew the licence to the Chevron
11:38
company to keep their operation in Venezuela.
11:42
So how you can explain? So after these two fact, they
11:47
immediately start to to treat Venezuela to send the ship
11:53
warships to Venezuela to speak about the narco state.
11:57
So how you can reach an agreement with the narco state
12:00
is a is a narrative of course. Yes, indeed.
12:03
Now look, I want to come on to in a second to the opposition
12:07
that exists in Venezuela and you've already mentioned one
12:09
name in particular. But before I do that I just
12:12
wanted to ask you what your view of Britain's position is in all
12:15
this and whether Britain is has any role in pushing an anti
12:19
Venezuelan narrative at the moment as well.
12:21
Yes, there is. You know, I think in in the war
12:27
there is a new geopolitical world, let's say that is
12:33
burning. Of course, this new the the new
12:36
system or the new geopolitical world that is is burning the
12:43
British, the British government is gains.
12:46
Of course, they want to keep their hegemony around the world.
12:51
And one of the biggest enemy of the new world there of Russia of
12:58
China of everything that has relationship with the new world
13:02
is the the UK regime. Let's say, you know, the British
13:07
regime. So of course Venezuela is part
13:10
of this new supporter of the of the new world, which is
13:15
necessary. This system is done.
13:17
This all the system, all the Germany is done.
13:21
It's a matter of time. Gramsci, he used to say that
13:27
when something new has to born but doesn't born and something
13:34
old has to die and doesn't die, that is the monsters and this
13:39
monster. We can see this monster in in
13:41
Israel for for example, we can see this monster around the
13:45
world that they are trying to avoid the born of the of the new
13:49
world. But the new world will born very
13:52
soon is born in and Venezuela is part of this war.
13:57
Of course, anyone who doesn't want or the the new world we're
14:04
do a blackmail or sabotage on on this process.
14:07
And UK is one of them. Probably UK was the supporting
14:11
in a very strong way Juan Guaido and Maria Machado and they are
14:18
supporting the the puppet president of of Guyana is
14:25
promoting a war against Venezuela.
14:27
So was the UK government who the the main supporter of this idea?
14:33
Well, let's talk about the opposition inside Venezuela then
14:37
for a second, because you mentioned President Obama being
14:40
a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Of course, Maria Machado has now
14:44
also received a Nobel Peace Prize.
14:47
She's a recipient. Is she a peacemaker?
14:51
Absolutely no. If we if we see the background
14:55
of this lady, first of all, we have to say that the the Nobel
15:01
Peace Prize is completely devaluated.
15:06
They it lost all of the credibility around the world.
15:10
If you see who won the Nobel Peace Prize from one time ago,
15:13
Kissinger, Obama people that doesn't have any relationship
15:18
with peace doesn't have any credibility.
15:21
But in this case, I think it's the cherry of the on the cake.
15:24
No, with the case of Maria Machado, because Maria Machado,
15:29
if you see his background or in Venezuela, she was calling for
15:35
an invasion against Venezuela. She was calling for aggression
15:38
against Venezuela. She was calling to block
15:41
Venezuela, to treat Venezuela. Actually, she supported the
15:45
policy of Trump to send the Venezuelan immigrant to El
15:49
Salvador to the gaol. And recently, just few days ago,
15:54
before the politic party of Maria Corina Machado Vente,
15:59
Venezuela signed an agreement with the Likud Party of Israel,
16:04
the politic party of Netanyahu sharing the ideology.
16:09
Can you imagine? Some people that share the
16:12
ideology of Netanyahu win a Nobel Prize is quite crazy.
16:18
But recently, after the they announced the extravagant
16:23
announced that she won the no, the Nobel Peace Prize, she
16:27
called the the President Trump and she called Netanyahu the
16:34
Prime Minister of Israel to congratulate him for the
16:38
genocide in Gaza. So this is Malia Corina Machado.
16:44
This is the the, the symbol, she is the symbol of the aggression.
16:49
She is the sign ball of the violence so doesn't has any
16:55
relationship with the with the peace and is a very weak favour
17:02
that the Nobel committed did against the Nobel Peace Prize.
17:07
Unfortunately, to say something in Venezuela, no one is speaking
17:13
about this prize or this award doesn't have any importance in
17:19
Venezuela. If you look the news in
17:21
Venezuela, no one is speaking, only the boats, the boats that
17:26
Maria Corina have on the social media and in the United States,
17:31
most of them live in the United States.
17:34
They have, they manage the social media and they have a big
17:39
boats in all social media and they are trying to replay and to
17:44
speak and to keep the Nobel Peace Prize on on the news.
17:50
But no one is speaking. Venezuela didn't have any impact
17:54
in Venezuela. Actually, I think the impact
17:58
that this Nobel Peace Prize had in Venezuela was to unite the
18:03
people against this attitude. So who's behind her?
18:08
Does she have any particular support in Venezuela and is she
18:11
in fact has rumoured funded or working for the CIA?
18:17
No, she doesn't have any support inside Venezuela and just a
18:22
very, very small part of let's say of, of the of our society
18:29
supported, but very small part because Venezuela is a
18:32
peacefully country. Everyone that has been in
18:36
Venezuela know that the Venezuelan love the peace.
18:39
Even if we are ready, we, we defend, we defend our
18:45
sovereignty, our independence in a very strong way.
18:51
We have very peacefully people. So we don't like this kind of
18:56
leadership. She's supported by the CIA, of
18:59
course. And let's say something there is
19:03
a a guy you can look for for him or you can read a little bit
19:10
about him is Thor Harbour saying, I don't remember very
19:15
well his name. He's the Norwegian Venezuelan
19:18
origin. He's working for a foundation in
19:21
Norway. And he was one of the biggest
19:25
supporter of Mala Corina Machado, the the Nobel committed
19:32
prize. So he paid a lot of money.
19:36
Unfortunately, I have to say that, you know, I am chemist,
19:39
this is my, my origin. So I am a scientist origin and I
19:46
know from from where this prize is coming or this prize is
19:52
coming from who was Nobel. So I am very sad to say that
19:58
this prize is using to manipulate, to promote the war,
20:01
to promote the aggression, to support the aggression around
20:04
the world best. But this prize has a price you
20:09
have to pay to get it and Tor Harborson.
20:13
He is one of the biggest supporter of Maria Corina
20:16
Machado in Norway. It's often a case, it seems,
20:19
that opposition figures are supported by tax exempt
20:22
foundation money, and I just wondered to what degree these
20:25
foundations are being used by deep state organisations to
20:29
effectively launder foreign state funding of opposition
20:31
parties in countries like Venezuela where regime changes
20:35
desired. Yes, especially this part of the
20:39
opposition, you know, is it's funny when I, when I listen
20:44
someone from the US administration or UK speaking
20:49
about the laundry money, about drugs, about the narco traffic.
20:55
If you see, you can study or evaluate in which country
21:01
normally the people used to laundry money or when the
21:06
corrupt, the corrupt people used to send their money.
21:10
I will, I will not because I'm diplomatic.
21:13
So I have to be careful about what I'm saying.
21:16
I don't want to mention any countries, but you can see which
21:20
country is a paradise, a fiscal paradise for the larger money.
21:25
Most of them who don't say, all of them are under control of UK
21:30
or or US. So how Venezuela for example,
21:34
can larger money, if we are blocked in the financial system,
21:40
what means larger money, clean money is use the financial
21:44
system, the formal financial system to put your money that
21:48
you get or you got for illegal business to clean it and put it
21:54
in a formal financial system. So how Venezuela will do to do
21:59
that if we are blocked from the formal financial system?
22:05
So it's just a narrative, you know, to create a narrative.
22:09
Of course, today is very easy to confuse the people.
22:15
I was speaking yesterday with some friends about how the
22:20
social media is affecting, is affecting the information and
22:26
the education of the people, because the people just read
22:30
the, the, the, the, the sentence, the news, the, the
22:33
title. That doesn't look for the they
22:36
don't go deepest in the information to understand what
22:40
is happening. So it's very easy to manipulate
22:42
the people. Actually, Mike, I got many
22:45
congratulations for many good friends that they support the
22:50
Venezuelan government. They are with us and they
22:53
congratulate me for the Nobel Peace Prize.
22:57
You know that that means that there is a big confusion,
23:03
ignorance. But we don't have to criticise,
23:07
We really have to take action to take measures to avoid this kind
23:13
of confusion in between the people.
23:16
OK. So you're based in Lebanon at
23:17
the moment, and so I'd like to learn a little bit more about
23:19
your experiences in that region and what you see Venezuela's
23:23
role being in the Middle East at the moment.
23:26
You spent you also spent a number of years as ambassador to
23:30
Syria, but clearly you're not in the basket at the moment because
23:33
there's been a regime change there.
23:35
So tell us a little bit about your experiences in Syria and
23:38
how you see that part of the world at the moment, and what do
23:42
you perhaps see for the immediate future?
23:44
Yes, it's, it's quite complicated the situation in all
23:51
of the Middle East. You know, we Venezuela, as a
23:59
founder of OPEC, we have a very good relationship with all of
24:05
the countries in the West Asia or Middle East, as the people
24:12
used to say. We have a very strong
24:15
relationship with the Gulf countries, with Syria, with
24:18
Lebanon. We have a very huge call Syria
24:23
and Lebanese community in Venezuela.
24:25
So our relationship is historical, you know, in the new
24:32
configuration of the world. That is maybe my personal
24:38
analysis about the situation. China has a key role, especially
24:43
in the economy, because the the the main, the, the control of
24:47
the United States around the world is the economy.
24:51
That is the way how they control the world.
24:54
Otherwise they they can't. And that is why Trump is focused
24:59
in the, in the tax, in the what is the Iran say less.
25:04
I forgot the word in English that he's trying to support
25:11
everywhere. He put tariffs on, on China, on
25:15
on many countries. No, because he need, he need
25:20
the, the to keep the strong in the dollar, the force of the
25:25
dollar around the world. So China has a huge project, the
25:29
Silk and Road project, which is very important.
25:33
And this project goes from China to Africa, going throughout the
25:39
Middle East. If you see with Netanyahu, the
25:43
speech of Netanyahu one year ago in the UN, he was speaking, he
25:47
showed to Mark well, he spoke about the blessing and he spoke
25:52
about the every countries. The every countries was the
25:58
countries that maybe avoid the hegemony of United States in the
26:07
region. And the blessing are the
26:12
countries that support, I will not say which country because we
26:16
have a very good relationships or the the politics of US state
26:20
or they are a very strong ally of US state.
26:23
So just look the arrow that he showed on the map, he show an
26:29
arrow from the South of East Asia until Europe.
26:36
So if you see the arrow, there is a region that this arrow is
26:42
going through, which is Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.
26:48
So they need to control this region.
26:51
In order to write my personal opinion, Mike, in order to block
26:58
China, that is my personal opinion.
27:00
In order to block China, to increase the influence of US and
27:04
UK in the region. Of course, the leadership of UK,
27:10
they ignore the history of the West Asia normally, but UK, the
27:17
leader of the UK, they know very well the the history of the West
27:24
Asia. That is why now they are playing
27:28
a very, I mean the UK administration.
27:32
They are playing a very important role around this
27:36
region to don't mention countries, no, but around very
27:41
close to to to this region. So what is the future of this
27:45
region? It's not clear in my opinion.
27:48
It's not clear, I don't think maybe you can you can conclude
27:56
that Israel is winning the war because they killed leadership
28:02
like Nasser, Al Ali. They've lead, they've fallen
28:06
down Syrian regime after 54 years of the Baath Party regime.
28:15
So they they have killed some leadership of the of Hamas.
28:22
You can conclude that Israel is winning, but for me it's not
28:26
clear because how you can explain, for example, if you
28:31
have devastated the Gaza region, how you can explain that you
28:38
were not able to find the hostage?
28:41
How how you can explain that you start the war and you say the
28:50
the aim of the war is to end Hamas and take control of Gaza.
28:56
And they didn't end Hamas and they didn't took the control of
29:01
of Gaza. So how they want this, this war?
29:08
I think the attack on Doha, on Qatar was the big trap for
29:14
Netanyahu. I don't know if you saw the
29:19
speech of Trump in the Knesset when he said he suggests the
29:26
president of Israel, you have to pardon the Prime Minister
29:31
Netanyahu. He has been the best Prime
29:35
Minister during the history, the world Prime Minister on the
29:38
history. So you have to pardon him.
29:42
He's exposing Netanyahu and see he say that.
29:46
And Trump, it's true that he's ignorant in the history, but
29:51
he's very smart in in politics. And I think he was exposing
29:56
Netanyahu as he exposed the Maria Machado some days ago when
30:02
when he said, I don't know her, but she was quite nice when she
30:08
called, she called me. Of course he knows her, but he
30:12
wanted to send a message that she's nothing.
30:16
It's the same with Netanyahu. So what will happen in the next
30:22
years in the middle in, in the West Asia?
30:25
In my opinion, it's not, it's not clear.
30:27
It's not clear. You know, you have to know the
30:30
history of Syria. Syrian people, they will never
30:35
ever accept extremist government.
30:40
They they used to accept or they love the secular government.
30:46
They used to live in a multi confessional society during
30:52
many, many years. So it's so difficult, the
30:57
situation in Syria right now. I don't know how the the new
31:02
regime will be able to manage this situation with the
31:06
extremist fighters, foreigners, fighters present in Syria, but
31:12
we'll see. It's not this.
31:15
Do you think the Syrian people will accept the new regime there
31:18
on a long term basis and do you think they have any ability to
31:20
remove the extremist elements from the country?
31:23
It's, it's, it's quite difficult the situation because you know,
31:28
immediately after the falling down of the, the President
31:34
Bashar just, I was in Syria at that moment, immediately Israel
31:39
start to bombing all of the militant infrastructure.
31:43
So right now Syria doesn't have a strong defence system.
31:49
First of all, no, Secondly, they need now after 14 years of war,
32:00
the people is quite tired because the, the economy,
32:03
economy in Syria is completely devastated.
32:07
It's completely destroyed. I don't want to speak a lot
32:10
about Syria because my condition is just explaining what is
32:16
completely clear for everyone. So the economy is is, it is so
32:19
complicated right now. So the new government has a huge
32:25
challenge, first of all is to improve the economy because OK
32:32
West has offer or has done many, many offer the West to Syria.
32:42
But what is this offer? Where are the projects that they
32:48
are ready to support exactly with the Gulf countries?
32:52
So they first of all, they need the stability and to, to, to
33:00
stabilise the stability in Syria right now, you need a big
33:04
reconciliation project between the society that is the, there
33:10
is very, very deep pain in the society in Syria.
33:16
So you have to work in and it's, it's a challenge, it's a big
33:19
challenge. I'm sure that Syria is a, an
33:22
historical civilisation, it's struggle of civilisation.
33:26
So of course they will find a way, but it's not easy.
33:29
And what about Lebanon, because obviously Lebanon is threatened
33:32
North and South potentially. So do you think is there a
33:35
danger to Lebanon? In the coming months, We could
33:38
see attacks from the Syrian side of the border and even more
33:42
attacks from the Israeli side of the border.
33:45
No, I think the the treaty for for Lebanon is the same of the
33:51
Middle East. Is is Israel.
33:54
Israel just bombed a few minutes ago I think I was reading some
34:02
news and they bombed it Has they have been bombed the South of
34:08
Lebanon in the last days. So the treatment for for Lebanon
34:12
is Israel the new government of Lebanon.
34:16
He is doing a a very good job in order to keep the unity of
34:22
Lebanon. There is a big treating to
34:25
Lebanon from the foreigner. If you read the the article, I
34:34
don't know how to call this this article of the special envoy of
34:40
United States, Tom Barack about Lebanon and Syria.
34:44
You know, they speak as a king. No, they speak as a king.
34:47
They give just ultimatum to to Lebanon government, to Syrian
34:54
government. They say what you have to say
34:56
because otherwise you will get bombed, bombing by by Israel.
35:01
So I don't think the problem will be Syria.
35:08
I think the problem in Lebanon is Israel is clearly is right.
35:12
Coming back to Venezuela itself, what role does Venezuela have in
35:15
Latin America? And I'm just wondering what can
35:18
Venezuela do to provide any kind of stability, any kind of
35:22
counter to the sort of narratives that we're seeing
35:23
from Western governments? Yes, you know, if you see the
35:26
position of the President Petro, the President of Colombia,
35:31
Gustavo Petro, or the position of the President of Brazil, Lula
35:36
da Silva. In the last speech, they have
35:39
spoken a lot about the Venezuelan right to to live in
35:46
peace, to find the solution, to respect the sovereignty, the
35:51
self determination of Venezuela. They have spoken a lot, a lot
35:56
about the the peace in the Caribbean Sea, in the Caribbean
36:02
regional, you know, we have around 2000 kilometre border
36:08
between Colombia and Venezuela and we have around two 2200
36:15
kilometres border with Brazil. So our border is huge.
36:19
Any problem in Venezuela, of course, will affect immediately
36:24
Brazil and Colombia. The President Petro and the
36:29
President Lula, they speak because not all because they are
36:34
defending only Venezuela, but also they are preserving the
36:39
stability of their countries for Colombia and Brazil.
36:44
Any situation in Venezuela will affect all of South America, not
36:48
only Brazil and Colombia, but also the rest of of not South
36:54
America, even the Caribbean under Central America.
36:58
Venezuela has a very important role, not only because they're a
37:04
geographic location. Venezuela is in the north of
37:08
South America. So Venezuela is a kind of bridge
37:12
between South America and North America, first of all.
37:17
Secondly, we have a big relationship with many, many
37:27
political groups in South America and Latin America in
37:31
general. Don't forget that from the
37:36
moment when the President Chavez reached to the presidents of
37:40
Venezuela, we start to work and to configure a kind of net
37:46
political net around all of Latin America.
37:50
So of course the some government change from the left side to the
37:54
right side, but we keep our relationship with the society.
38:02
So any problem in Venezuela will affect all of the Latin America.
38:08
I want to be very, very honest and very human by saying that
38:14
it's not because we believe that we are very important to know.
38:17
It's because we have a very important role among among the
38:24
history of Latin America. So Venezuela is an important
38:28
actor in Latin America, of course.
38:30
And the United States knows very well that Trump, President
38:33
Trump, he knows very well the role of Venezuela.
38:37
He said some days ago, now I have gave the green light for
38:43
the CIA to act in Venezuela. The CIA is acting in Latin
38:47
America from 6078 years ago. No, it's not acting from, it's
38:52
not recent. So he's a kind of of a play of
38:58
game to say that no, we are still acting against Venezuela,
39:02
but he knows very well that there is a red line with
39:05
Venezuela. OK.
39:06
That's an interesting point. But obviously there've been a
39:09
direct attacks over the last couple of weeks.
39:11
And the question is, do you see this escalating from here on?
39:14
With Trump, you never know. With Trump, you never know.
39:17
He can change his mind just in 2 minutes, even though from one
39:23
day to another day, even in just the means.
39:25
He said something, he had a meeting with the president of
39:28
Argentina. He offered to him financial help
39:33
and immediately the next day he said that Argentina is in a big
39:37
problem, in a big troubles. So you'll never know what to
39:40
expect of Trump but you know they his bizarre when you see
39:47
that they are sending warships, submarines, missiles to the
39:53
Caribbean sea to bombing the small the small boat.
39:57
So doesn't make sense. You're expending a huge amount
40:01
of money just to bombing a small small boat.
40:05
And something happened 2-3 days ago which is very interesting to
40:09
analyse. They bombed a boat and they were
40:15
able to cut 2 guys, one from Colombia and one from.
40:21
Ecuador, they sent back those guys to Ecuador and Colombia.
40:28
We were we were looking for the background of the guy from
40:32
Ecuador and the guy from Ecuador.
40:35
He was sentenced in United States five years ago.
40:39
No one or two years ago for five years for for drug traffic.
40:47
And then they sent back the guy, the Ecuador, the Ecuador guy to
40:52
Ecuador. And immediately the governor,
40:57
the governor of Ecuador, Novoa, he gave him the freedom and this
41:05
guy, they, he was catched recently by the US and they sent
41:11
back to Ecuador. Why is this?
41:14
It's quite bizarre. No, because he was judged in in
41:18
US state for for the traffic of drug.
41:24
So you cut again this guy and you send back again to Ecuador.
41:29
Ecuador again send him, put him out of the gaol.
41:36
It's something strange. Now, I'll appreciate it if you
41:42
don't want to answer this question, but obviously there've
41:44
been persistent allegations of CIA themselves being involved in
41:48
drug trafficking. Do you think that that might
41:51
have might give us a hint as to why this guy was released?
41:55
I will tell you my personal opinion about this operation of
41:59
the of the Marco Rubio has a historic relationship with the
42:07
the Nartos, especially from Colombia.
42:10
No, one of the strongest ally is Uribe's Uribe.
42:16
He was the president of Venezuela and he he is one of
42:19
the biggest boss of the cartel in Colombia.
42:22
He's very strong ally of Marco Rubio.
42:24
Marco Rubio has been financed by by the cartel.
42:31
What is my personal opinion? My personal opinion why they are
42:35
sending ships, warships to the Caribbean if more than 85% of
42:40
the drugs go to United States through the Pacific Ocean?
42:47
The biggest drug producer is Colombia and the second biggest
42:53
one are Ecuador and Peru. 100% of the drugs is is produced in
43:01
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. More than 85% of this drug goes
43:06
to the United States through the Pacific Ocean.
43:08
So why you are sending the the warships and this operative all
43:14
big operation to the Caribbean? In my opinion, they want to
43:18
control the business. So they want to warrant that the
43:23
drug reach United States throughout the Pacific Ocean.
43:27
That is the first, the first objective of Marco Rubio.
43:30
That is why I, I say from at the beginning that this operation is
43:34
supported mainly by Marcos Rubio.
43:38
And, and the second thing I say again, my personal opinion, this
43:44
is a trap from Marco Rubio to Trump, because Trump ignore what
43:50
is happening in Venezuela, he ignore what is happening in
43:53
Colombia, in Ecuador or in Peru. Marcos Rubio is taking advantage
43:59
from his Cuban origin. He speak Spanish very fluently.
44:04
So he's taking advantage of this to put Trump in a trouble with
44:11
Latin American and in my opinion is a big trouble.
44:16
But Trump, he knows also what he's doing.
44:20
He he he is ignorant of the history, but he is smart again.
44:25
OK, well, our time is almost up. I'd like to say a massive thank
44:29
you for speaking to me today. That's been a hugely interesting
44:32
conversation. I hope we can do this again at
44:34
some point in the future. But if people want to find out
44:37
more about Venezuela, is there somewhere that they can go to
44:40
get information about the country, which is a little more
44:42
objective than we get from the Western media?
44:46
It's difficult. It's difficult to get
44:48
information normally. It's so difficult because even
44:54
if you look for YouTube, for example, let's say one, one
45:00
example, biggest one of the biggest social media like
45:04
YouTube, they block the the channel of the president Maduro,
45:09
they block the channel of the minister of interior, Gonzalo
45:14
Cabelloso. They shadow ban all of the
45:17
information. So the best source is just to to
45:22
look for the information coming from the Venezuelan government
45:26
because we are objective. For example, I was speaking with
45:29
some friend this morning with ambassadors, friend of of me.
45:32
They say what is your why you don't sell oil to United States?
45:37
Say come on, we are sending oil to United States.
45:39
We don't have any problem with for sending oil to United
45:42
States, but they have to pay the oil.
45:45
The problem is that if United States want to get the oil for
45:48
free, they will not get the oil for free.
45:51
And if they give a, they gave a licence to Chevron, if they gave
45:57
a licence to Shell, which is Auka British company to explode
46:02
the gas between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
46:05
So we don't have any problem of sending oil to United States or
46:10
to anywhere else. But you have to pay if you for
46:15
for free, you will not get it. So it's just a big manipulation
46:19
about the information. So to tell you yes, to tell you
46:23
where we can find information mics is so difficult.
46:27
Maybe I will. I will put some some web page in
46:34
in my source, in my my post, in my eggs, in my Instagram to tell
46:40
the people. Please if you want to see
46:42
information, write information about Venezuela, look this web
46:46
page. Well, let's see, let's see what
46:49
happens when we put this interview on YouTube and see how
46:51
long it stays on there for. Thank you again very much for
46:57
joining me today, Jose. That's been a hugely interesting
46:59
conversation and I hope we can speak again soon.
47:02
No, thank you. Thank you Michael for this
47:06
opportunity and whatever you want or your staff, your people,
47:10
I am ready to to to bring the, the true Venezuela.