Venezuela’s Maduro Labels Macron “Imperialist” Over “Dictatorship” Remarks

Puebla, Mexico, August 31, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused France of joining an “imperialist” campaign Tuesday, after the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, warned of a “dictatorship” in Caracas.

“The French head of state’s affirmations show a deep lack of knowledge of the reality of Venezuela, whose people live in complete peace,” Maduro’s government said in a statement.

The statement was in response to comments made by Macron during an ambassadorial meeting in Paris. During the meeting, Macron described Maduro’s administration as “a dictatorship trying to survive at the cost of unprecedented humanitarian distress”.

Maduro’s government has labeled the comment “a clear interference in the internal affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.

“Comments like this are an attack on Venezuelan institutions and seem to form part of the permanent imperialist obsession with attacking our people,” the government said.

On Wednesday, France’s Foreign Ministry stood by Macron’s comments, stating it was assessing how to promote dialogue between Venezuela’s government and opposition.

“It is up to the Venezuelan authorities to give quick pledges in terms of respecting rule of law and fundamental freedoms,” spokesperson Agnes Romatet-Espagne said, according to Reuters.

“The European Union and France will evaluate their relationship with Venezuela on this basis,” she said.

Venezuela has been mired in political unrest, amid the country’s worst economic downturn in at least two decades. At least 126 people were killed in four months of violent anti-government unrest that proceeded July 30 National Constituent Assembly elections. At least 14 of those deaths are suspected to have been caused by state security forces, while over 30 may be linked to violent opposition groups.