President Nicolás Maduro today accused the United States and Europe of having attacked “with a powerful weapon” the Amuay Venezuelan refinery and announced that Venezuela has only 20 days’ gas reserves.
“Amuay was attacked with a long and powerful weapon and we are investigating. [Amuay é] one of the most important refineries in Venezuela. They wanted to cause an explosion and knocked down a tower that was thicker than a battle tank, ”he said.
President Nicolás Maduro was speaking in the presidential palace of Miraflores, in Caracas, during a conference with international journalists in which he did not specify the type of weapon that was used and referred more details to the attorney general designated by the Constituent Assembly (composed only of supporters of the Constituent Assembly). regime), Tarek William Saab.
“They wanted to start a fire at the refinery, they took down a tower. Venezuela faces situations of permanent conspiracies. We do not have an opposition, we have a permanent consortium endorsed, financed, promoted by the United States Government with the complicity of several governments in Europe, ”he said.
On the other hand, he explained that Venezuela increased 30% of local gasoline production, but that the Venezuelan Government “is regulating” consumption, because it suffered “a very hard blow”.
“Venezuela has gas reserves for twenty days. We work to extend them to thirty days. We are returning to production again and another percentage has come from different parts of the world ”, he said.
According to Nicolás Maduro “the United States worked for a year to chase the gasoline we were importing and in August they stole three million barrels”, he stressed, accusing the opposition leader Juan Guaidó of having promoted this theft.
On the other hand, he again accused his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque, of training mercenaries to invade Venezuela.
“We have presented evidence of how in [Colômbia] Norte de Santander, Antioquia, La Guajira and Cali, there are four camps with some 1,000 mercenaries, among Colombian paramilitaries, deserter mercenaries of Venezuelan origin and other captured criminals, ”he said.
Nicolás Maduro denied claims by American politicians that Venezuela had bought arms from Iran, admitting, however, that it would be a “good idea”.
“It seems like a very good idea. Iran can sell and we can buy. In its moment we will see the Iranian offer, I will make the decision and that military team will come to reinforce Venezuela’s defense capacity ”, he said.
During the press conference Nicolás Maduro reiterated his willingness to diagonize with the next US president.
“Win Trump or Biden, Latin Americans will have to struggle with our own effort to move forward,” he said.
Today, before the press conference, opposition deputy Luís Stefanelli denounced that on Tuesday afternoon there was a leak at the Amuay refinery, specifying that workers are “on high alert”.
In Venezuela, complaints from the population about difficulties in obtaining fuel are frequent, a situation that the Venezuelan Government attributes to sabotage and the opposition says is the result of incorrect policies, lack of investment and maintenance.
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