Maduro attacks the United States as a huge aircraft carrier approaches Venezuela
CARACAS (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said the U.S. government is “manufacturing” a war against him as the world’s largest warship approaches the South American country, while trying to revoke the citizenship of an opponent he accuses of inciting an invasion.
Maduro said in a national broadcast Friday night that President Donald Trump’s administration is “manufacturing a new forever war” as the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which can hold up to 90 attack aircraft and helicopters, approaches Venezuela.
On Saturday, the Venezuelan president also referred to the pressures he has felt from the US government by initiating a judicial process that seeks to revoke the citizenship and cancel the passport of opposition politician Leopoldo López.
“They promised they would never get involved in a war again and they are inventing a war that we will avoid,” Maduro said in Friday night’s speech. Trump has accused him, without providing evidence, of being the leader of the organized crime gang Tren de Aragua.
“They are fabricating an extravagant, vulgar, criminal and totally false narrative,” Maduro added. “Venezuela is a country that does not produce cocaine leaf.”
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US forces have destroyed several ships off the Venezuelan coast, allegedly for their role in drug trafficking to the United States. At least 43 people died in those attacks.
Tren de Aragua, which has its roots in a Venezuelan prison, is not known for playing a major role in the global drug trade, but for its involvement in contract killings, extortion and human trafficking.
Maduro was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, and countries including the United States have called for him to leave.
Earlier, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on her Telegram account that Maduro had appealed to the country’s Supreme Court to revoke López’s nationality for his “grotesque, criminal and illegal call for a military invasion of Venezuela.”
López, a well-known Venezuelan opposition exiled in Spain since 2020, has publicly expressed his support for the deployment of US ships in the Caribbean and the attacks on vessels suspected of drug trafficking.
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The vice president said that López’s passport will be revoked “immediately,” and that he is also accused of promoting the “economic blockade” and “calling for the mass murder of Venezuelans in complicity with enemy and foreign governments.”
The opposition leader reacted in his X account, dismissing the measure because “according to the Constitution, no Venezuelan born in Venezuela can have his nationality revoked.” He once again expressed support for a US military deployment and military actions in the country.
“Maduro wants to take away my nationality for saying what all Venezuelans think and want: freedom,” López wrote. “After having stolen the 2024 elections, we agreed to follow all paths to end the dictatorship,” added the politician.
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 “instigation and conspiracy to commit a crime.”
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He was later granted house arrest and, after being released by a group of soldiers during a political crisis in Venezuela, left the country in 2020.