Maduro met with Chinese counterpart hours before capture
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Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro met with a Chinese envoy just hours before his capture by the United States, drawing attention to the great power rivalry between Washington and Beijing in the Western Hemisphere.
Maduro received Qiu Xiaoqi, the Chinese government’s special envoy for Latin American affairs, at the Miraflores Presidential Palace on Friday, reaffirming Caracas’ strategic ties with Beijing and vowing to build “a multipolar world of development and peace.”
Hours later, President Donald Trump announced that US forces had struck targets across Venezuela, detained Maduro and his wife and flown them out of the country, part of a dramatic escalation of pressure on the embattled leader.
The US operation is seen as the most direct US military action against a sitting head of state in Latin America since Panama in 1989; The Trump administration framed the capture as the culmination of months of allegations that Maduro was smuggling drugs into the United States and ruling illegitimately.
MADURO SAID VENEZUELA IS ‘READY’ TO DEAL WITH US ON DRUGS AND OIL AFTER MILITARY ATTACKS
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro received Chinese government representative Qiu Xiaoqi at the presidential palace in Caracas on Friday, hours before Maduro was captured by the United States. (Anadolu Agency, via Reuters)
Meanwhile, China said it was “deeply shocked” by the US action.
“China is deeply shocked and strongly condemns the US’s blatant use of force against a sovereign state and its action against its president,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement. he said.
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“Such hegemonic behavior by the United States seriously violates international law, violates Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threatens peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean. China firmly opposes this,” the statement said. expressions were used.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on September 18, 2016. (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
China has provided billions of dollars in financing and energy investments to expand its influence in Latin America through the Belt and Road Initiative, and Caracas is the largest importer of crude oil.
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The Trump administration has publicly rejected this trend. The United States intends to reassert the Monroe Doctrine, a longstanding policy against foreign powers that establish strategic footholds in America, especially authoritarian rivals such as China, senior officials said.
Venezuela became the focal point of this competition. US officials have accused Beijing, along with Russia and Iran, of supporting Maduro’s government, which faces international isolation, economic collapse and allegations of widespread corruption and drug trafficking.
