Caption: Supporters of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro with a national flag and a portrait of him, gather in the streets of Caracas on January 3, 2026, after US forces captured him. AFP/Fererico Parra
By Alicia Chamely
VENEZUELAN Minister of Defence Vladimir Padrino Lopez is denouncing the military aggression against Venezuelans and is calling on Venezuelan people to mobilise to, what he describes as “this imperialist aggression.”
Lopez’s statement came on Saturday morning, shortly after the United States military launched attacks on military bases in Caracas and attacks on assets in the Venezuelan states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
Lopez said, “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the grave military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and its population in the civilian and military areas of Caracas, the capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira.”
Lopez stated the attacks violated the Charter of the United Nations and threatened peace and stability in Latin American and the Caribbean.
Calling the attack nothing more than the US attempting to seize Venezuela’s oil and minerals, the US would not succeed to force any regime change.
Lopez called on all Venezuelans to mobilise, saying, “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack. The people of Venezuela and their Bolivarian National Armed Forces, in perfect popular-military-police unity, are deployed to guarantee sovereignty and peace.”
He stated, President Nicolas Maduro had signed and ordered the implementation of the “Decree declaring a state of External Disturbance throughout the national territory, to protect the rights of the population, the full functioning of republican institutions, and to immediately transition to armed struggle.”
Adding, “The entire country must mobilise to defeat this imperialist aggression.”
Lopez stated under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, Venezuela had the right to exercise self-defence to protect its nation and its independence.
He called on the people and governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to act in solidarity to oppose the “imperialist aggression” of the United States.
See links to AZP News coverage of US strikes in Venezuela:
Machado: Hour of Freedom is here
Venezuela Defence Minister Denounces US Military Intervention
‘Like a Television Show’: Trump Revels in Maduro’s Capture
No más Maduro: Venezuelan President Captured as US Strikes Caracas
Kamla: T&T has Peaceful Relations with Venezuela
CARICOM Monitoring Venezuela Situation
PNM Committed to ‘Zone of Peace’
