MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On July 17, Trump said that if the Venezuelan government proceeded with the Constituent Assembly vote, which is scheduled to take place this Sunday, the United States would "take strong and swift economic actions."
"From the very first moment this [ultimatum] appeared, it was criticized and was rejected by the Presdient [Nicolas Maduro] as well as Foreign Minister [Samuel Moncada]. It was stated that such threats are unacceptable," Tortosa said.
Since early April, Venezuela saw mass protests after the decision of the Supreme Court to take over legislative powers from the opposition-controlled National Assembly. The top court reversed the ruling but the step did not stop the mass demonstrations.
Venezuelan authorities are not ruling out US secret services staging provocations in the country on July 30, the day of the Constituent Assembly vote, to get a pretext for military intervention, he said.
"This is definitely not ruled out. They would like this to happen, for such actions to take place, to prepare a feast for media and in that way ensure a pretext for armed intervention," the ambassador said when asked whether he did not rule out US provocations envisaging bloodshed to accuse Venezuelan authorities of it.
The opposition is staging a 48-hour strike that will last through Thursday and aims to prevent the government from pressing forward with the Sunday vote. The protests have been ongoing in Venezuela since April, when the country's top court attempted to curb the powers of the National Assembly.
In May, the country's president Nicolas Maduro announced his decision to call the National Constituent Assembly, which was regarded by the opposition as an attempted coup and resulted in further escalation of tensions that resulted in the deaths of about 100 people.
