The US is trying to steal Venezuela's hydrocarbon resources and violate the republic's regional gas agreements. Delcy Rodriguez, Executive Vice President and Minister of Hydrocarbons of the Bolivarian Republic, made the statement via videoconference at the ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Doha.
“The US is trying to steal our hydrocarbon resources, oil and gas, and violate the agreements that Venezuela has with Caribbean countries,“ Rodriguez said. She stressed that the US military presence in the Caribbean “is aimed at violating the republic's gas agreements with countries in the region“.
The US administration's actions “are part of a policy of expansion and economic pressure that threatens regional sovereignty“, Rodriguez noted. She pointed out that Washington poses a threat to the region's energy security and has a negative impact on the economies and industrialization of Caribbean countries.
Washington accuses Venezuelan authorities of not being proactive enough in the fight against drug trafficking. The US Navy has deployed eight warships, a nuclear submarine and 10,000 US troops to the Caribbean Sea and destroyed at least five motorboats in international waters with people on board that the US administration says were transporting drugs from Venezuela.