Venezuela’s Maduro says the US is fabricating a war and seeks to revoke citizenship of opponent
CARACAS (AP) — Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro He said the US government was “fabricating” a war against him world’s largest warship He approached the South American country as he moved to revoke the citizenship of his rival, whom he accused of inciting the invasion.
Maduro said in a national broadcast Friday night that President Donald Trump’s administration is “making up a new eternal war” as the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which can accommodate up to 90 planes and host attack helicopters, approaches Venezuela.
The Venezuelan president on Saturday also touched on the pressure he feels from the U.S. government as it launches legal proceedings to revoke the citizenship of opposition politician Leopoldo López and revoke his passport.
“They promised they would never get involved in a war again, and they are fabricating a war that we will avoid,” Maduro said in a speech Friday night. Trump blamed him without providing evidencebeing the leader of an organized crime gang Train in Aragua.
“They are producing an exaggerated, vulgar, criminal and completely false narrative,” Maduro added. “Venezuela is a country that does not produce cocaine leaf.”
American forces destroyed several boats off the coast of Venezuela for allegedly smuggling drugs to the United States. At least 43 people lost their lives in these attacks.
Tren de Aragua, whose origins trace back to a prison in Venezuela, is known not for having a major role in the global drug trade, but for contract killings, extortion and human trafficking.
maduro accused of stealing last year’s electionand countries including the United States have called for his departure.
Previously, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in her Telegram account that Maduro had applied to the country’s Supreme Court of Justice to revoke López’s citizenship due to the “grotesque, criminal and illegal call for a military invasion of Venezuela.”
López, a prominent Venezuelan opposition figure who has been in exile in Spain since 2020, has publicly expressed support for the deployment of US ships in the Caribbean and attacks on vessels suspected of drug smuggling.
The vice president said López’s passport would be revoked “immediately” and that he would also be accused of encouraging “economic blockade” and “calling for the mass murder of Venezuelans in complicity with hostile and foreign governments.”
Reacting on account X, the opposition leader rejected this move because “According to the Constitution, the citizenship of any Venezuelan born in Venezuela cannot be revoked.” He once again expressed his support for the US military deployment and military actions in the country.
“Maduro wants to take away my citizenship because I said what all Venezuelans think and want: freedom,” López wrote. “We agree to pursue every means to end the dictatorship after it stole the 2024 election,” the politician added.
López spent more than three years in a military prison after participating in anti-government protests in 2014. He was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison on charges of “incitement and conspiracy to commit a crime”.
He was later placed under house arrest and left the country in 2020 after being released by a group of military personnel during the political crisis in Venezuela.
