Speaking to viewers in his weekly television program 'Sundays with Maduro' on VTV, Maduro quipped that "in the world there are people who think I'm a Caribbean Stalin. And I do look like him: look at the profile of my face."
"Sometimes I look in the mirror and it seems to me that I look like Stalin," he added.
Maduro: En el mundo hay gente que me ve a mi como el Stalin del Caribe, y me parezco https://t.co/eecTjSdtkP pic.twitter.com/1eRX0tWRLD
— Diario 2001 (@2001OnLine) 17 сентября 2017 г.
At the same time, the president argued that the world leaders that criticize him for being too tough on the opposition use much tougher measures in their own countries. "[Spanish Prime Minister Mariano] Rajoy has deployed police to Catalonia to detain 700 mayors. Does he act like a dictator? [Who is the dictator] Maduro, who lets the opposition hold a plebicite, or Rajoy, who does not want Catalonia to have a say?" he asked.
Last month, Washington imposed new economic sanctions against Caracas, calling its leadership the "illegitimate Maduro dictatorship." The sanctions include restrictions on the purchase of new securities issued by the government or its state oil company, PDVSA, and came on the heels of new personal sanctions against top Venezuelan officials.
On Friday, President Maduro said that Venezuela had dropped the US dollar from its oil pricing and began listing its prices in Chinese yuan in a bid to counter US sanctions. Chinese oil industry analysts believe it is unlikely that the US will impose a complete ban on Venezuelan oil. Venezuela is the third largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, accounting for 8 percent of total US imports in 2016. The country is also the 11th largest oil exporter in the world.
