According to Castro, there is documented evidence that the United States has a plan to topple the Venezuelan government and Rex Tillerson's trip's goal is to coordinate this plan. One of the plan's targets is capturing Venezuelan oil.
"The official communique describes the US plans in the region and it is clear that this is an absolutely imperialistic plan," Castro said in an interview to Sputnik.
"This trip aims to coordinate undermining of Maduro's government," she added, underscoring that Venezuela is among US foreign policy priorities and it is confirmed by the official documents.
Tillerson is going to visit Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Jamaica. He will meet the leaders of the Latin American countries in Venezuela, to congregate those displeased with Venezuela and convince them to recognize the upcoming Venezuelan elections as illegitimate. According to Castro, this is an unacceptable intervention in Venezuela's internal affairs.
Castro also mentioned the Lima group, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Panamá, Paraguay and Peru. The group appeared in August of 2017 when its members signed the Lima Declaration, in which they refused to recognize Venezuela as a democratic country and declared actions approved by its Constituent Assembly to be illegal.
"Such is the case in countries like Brazil, where Michel Temer came to power via a coup. In Paraguay, president Horacio Cartes came to power in the very same way, by toppling Fernando Lugo. There are also Juan Manuel Santos [President of Colombia] and Enrique Pena Nieto [President of Mexico], who appear to be more concerned about Venezuela than about solving their own domestic problems."
Castro is also puzzled by Tillerson's statement that he is going to promote security on the South American continent, because "it is hard to imagine anybody choosing the US as a partner on promoting security." She underscores that is not a secret to anyone that the US took part in every single coup d'etat in Latin America, both military and civilian, and they also trained the local military in torture and espionage techniques.
Castro noted that is was also the US that destroyed Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq and stripped hundreds of thousands of people of their normal livelihoods and caused an enormous migration crisis. Now, she says, they seek to do the same thing in Venezuela in pursuit of cheap or free oil.
"Who would like to have such a partner on security?" the former Argentinian ambassador asks in conclusion.
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