Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro on Monday evening issued comments condemning President Donald Trump’s imposition of secondary tariffs on countries purchasing Venezuelan oil.
“We defeated yesterday’s sanctions. And we will also defeat those that are to come with work, creation, inventiveness, love, and patriotism. They will be able to sanction and impose tariffs on whatever they want,” Maduro said during an official regime event.
“What they will not be able to sanction is the love and patriotism of the Venezuelan people, of the working class, of the businessmen, of the peasants, of the women,” he continued. “They will never be able to sanction the soul of a people that defeated an empire that had been clawing at us for 300 years.”
President Trump announced on Monday afternoon that any country that purchases oil or gas from Venezuela will be subject to an additional 25 percent “secondary tariff” on all goods imported to the United States.
In his corresponding executive order, President Trump explained that the decision is in response to the actions of the Maduro regime, which poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States’ national security and foreign policy.
President Trump further cited the activities of the Tren de Aragua terrorist organization and Venezuela’s ongoing “destabilizing actions” including the rogue socialist regime’s support for illicit activities, systematic undermining of democratic institutions, and the destabilization of the Western Hemisphere through the Venezuelan migrant crisis.
The “secondary tariffs” on countries purchasing Venezuelan oil and gas will go into effect on April 2, 2025 — the same day U.S. reciprocal tariffs are scheduled to go into effect.
The Maduro regime also responded to President Trump’s Monday announcement in a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry condemning the imposition of the 25 percent tariffs as an “arbitrary, illegal, and desperate measure” that, according to the Maduro regime, “confirms the resounding failure of all the sanctions imposed against our country.”
“For years, the fascist right wing, repudiated by the Venezuelan people, has promoted economic sanctions with the illusion of surrendering Venezuela. They have failed,” the statement read.
“They failed because Venezuela is a sovereign country, because its people have resisted with dignity and because the world no longer submits to any economic dictatorship scheme,” the statement continued. “Today, that same failed strategy intends to be reissued with coercive measures that seek to undermine the development of our nation.”
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry continued its statement by accusing the United States of “flagrantly” violating international trade rules with the new tariffs, citing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that were “precisely to prevent one country from using trade as a weapon of political pressure against others.” The Foreign Ministry asserted that Venezuela will exercise “all pertinent actions” at international organizations to denounce this “violation of the world economic order.”
“Despite these aggressions, Venezuela remains firm on its path. Our country advances on its path of growth and prosperity, together with a people that has resisted with dignity and has defeated every attempt of subjugation promoted by the usual extremists,” the statement concluded. “They have not been able nor will they be able to stop us. The policy of maximum pressure has failed in Venezuela and in the world.”
“The self-determination of our people, which has always grown in the face of difficulties and proudly boasts its condition of heir to the glories of the greatest liberator of America: Simón Bolívar,” the statement added.
During his first term, President Trump imposed human rights sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA in January 2019 in response to the extensive list of human rights violations committed by the Maduro regime against its own people. The oil and gas sanctions were temporarily lifted under the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden between October 2023 and April 2024 as part of a failed plan to entice Nicolás Maduro to allow a “free and fair” election in Venezuela.
Maduro, who received the generous oil and gas sanctions relief package in exchange for vague “free and fair” electoral promises, instead held a highly fraudulent election on July 28, securing his third illegitimately obtained six-year presidential term.
Additionally, former President Biden granted a license to California-based Chevron in November 2022 that allowed the company to resume oil production in Venezuela and sell Venezuelan oil in American markets. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) initially announced in early March the termination of the license to take place on Thursday, April 3, 2025. On Monday, OFAC announced it had granted a two-month extension to Chevron to wind down its operations in Venezuela which will run through May 27, 2025.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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