US Plans to Deliver Arms to Venezuelan Opposition, Russia Warns

22 February 2019 (teleSUR)* —  The Russian government warned Friday that the United States and its allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of planning to deliver arms to the Venezuelan opposition.

“We have evidence that U.S. companies and their NATO allies are working on the issue of acquiring a large batch of weapons and ammunition in an Eastern European country for their subsequent transfer to Venezuelan opposition forces,” the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said.

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“The batch will reportedly include heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, portable missile launchers and ammunition for light weapons and artillery systems. So this is what they mean when they talk about delivering humanitarian aid.”

Zakharova also spoke of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s words, which were addressed to the Venezuelan military, urging them to ignore the orders of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

“The U.S. direct call that took place these days, aimed at the Venezuelan military, urging them to ignore the orders of the legitimate leader of the country, represents the height of cynicism,” Zakarova said.

Her statement comes amid an escalation of tensions in the South American country due to the destabilizing actions carried out by the US-backed Venezuelan opposition, which announced its intention to deliver ‘Humanitarian Aid’ to the country on Feb. 23.

On Thursday, at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, also warned that the U.S. is preparing an “outrageous” provocation in Venezuela under the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid.

“Apparently, in a provocative frenzy, our U.S. colleagues, who are now preparing an outrageous and obvious provocation on the Colombia-Venezuela border, were too enthusiastic and decided to participate in hints and propagations of fake news in the Security Council,” the Russian diplomat said.

The Russian Spokeswoman also warned of the seriousness of the incidents that the U.S. government could trigger as it tries to destabilize President Maduro.

“The development of events in Venezuela has come to a critical point… On Feb. 23, a dangerous large-scale provocation is set to take place, instigated by the Washington-led crossing of the Venezuelan border with a so-called humanitarian convoy, which may lead to clashes between supporters and opponents, forming a convenient pretext for military action to remove the current legitimate president from government”, Zakharova said.

The United States and its right-wing allies in Latin America have come out in support of a right-wing coup attempt against the Venezuelan government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro after they supported a decision by opposition lawmaker, named Juan Guaido, to declare himself an “interim president” of Venezuela on Jan. 23 in violation of the country’s constitution.

In return, Maduro has repeatedly called for the restoration of talks between his government and the opposition in order to maintain peace and avoid a U.S.-backed coup, or even military intervention by the United States in favor of removing him and placing an unelected right-wing government.

Guiado and his allies U.S. allies have so far responded to such calls by escalation and rejection of any dialogue. They continue to call for the military to intervene, while sources in the United States have revealed that Trump is “seriously considering” military intervention into Venezuela if Maduro does not step down.

To further the pressure, the United States imposed harsh economic sanction on the Venezuelan oil industry and its national oil company, while also blocking the bank accounts of the Venezuelan state in the United States, vowing to only remove such restrictions when Guiado achieves control of the state institutions.