“Acting President” of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez on Monday responded to “irrelevant and offensive statements” from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent by asserting Venezuela “does not accept orders from any external factor.”
Rodríguez reportedly issued her response to to Sec. Bessent during her participation at a Monday evening event with international oil company representatives — prefacing her remarks by quoting late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez, who “used to say that there are provocations that must be responded to and others that should not be responded to.”
“The U.S. Treasury Secretary has made some irrelevant and offensive statements, and I must respond to them. The people of Venezuela do not take orders from any external factor. The people of Venezuela have a government, and this government obeys the people,” Rodríguez said.
“There is reciprocity in this relationship between the Venezuelan people, their authorities, and their institutions. And I am happy to have the honor, in these difficult times for Venezuela, of representing Venezuelans and obeying the Venezuelan people. We have no other external factor to obey. ” she continued.
In recent days, Sec. Bessent speaking with with Real America’s Voice, said that the United States will slowly start taking off sanctions on Venezuela, noting that America is running the country’s policy now.
“As Secretary of State Rubio has said, we are not running the country, we are running policy. And we have left members of the government in place, and they will administer the country,” Sec. Bessent said.
“We will sell the oil, maybe some other resources, keep it in escrow for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. And then when we believe it is time, there will be free and fair elections,” he continued. “And I think María Corina Machado has been very outspoken in her support of what President Trump has done.”
Sec. Bessent noted the difference for Venezuelans between January 2 and January 3, the day the United States carried out a law enforcement operation in Caracas to capture the now-deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores — both of whom are presently at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, awaiting trial on multiple narco-terrorism charges.
“And I think that’s also – everyone says, well, what if the Venezuelan leaders go back to their old ways? I think when they see the videos of the president being removed from Caracas and in a jail cell in New York, I think that they will follow American orders,” Sec. Bessent stressed.
The Treasury Secretary’s remarks appear to have infuriated Delcy Rodríguez, who responded to him on Monday.
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“And as for the personal threats I receive, I want you to know that I was already aware of them when I was sworn in as acting president and I accepted, we are not afraid,” Rodríguez said.
“Nor are we afraid of respectful relations with the United States, but they must be based on respect, respect for international law, minimum human respect in interpersonal relations, and respect for the dignity and history of Venezuela,” she continued.
Rodríguez’s Monday remarks come hours after she publicly stated that she has has “enough” of Washington’s orders during another official event.
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