On Wednesday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil denounced the involvement of the United States in the activities of groups aiming to destabilize the Bolivarian nation.
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"Venezuela categorically rejects the cynical statement from the State Department regarding the recent deactivation of terrorist operations that sought to destabilize the country and sow acts of violence," he said.
"The U.S. government has lost its moral compass. While, on the one hand, it seeks to condemn Venezuela for taking actions to preserve peace within the framework of the Constitution and laws, on the other hand, it arrests truly peaceful protesters against the genocide in Gaza and seeks to curtail their freedom of expression."
"With such a lack of coherence, it is not surprising that Washington advocates in favor of the architects of the frustrated terrorist operations in Venezuela and even gives them its complicit position," Gil stated, noticing that the U.S. defense of such destabilizing actions encourages violence and threatens the normal development of the 2024 electoral process.
"Nevertheless, the actions taken by the Attorney General's Office and the competent authorities, as well as the Venezuelan people's democratic conviction, are and will be a sufficient guarantee that our country will conduct elections in full exercise of its sovereignty and with guarantees of peace, despite imperialist threats, obvious interventionism, and blackmail," he added.
The Foreign Affairs Minister's response comes one day after the United States commented on the arrests made by Venezuelan authorities of citizens involved in five conspiracies planning attacks against President Nicolas Maduro and other high-ranking officials.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller attempted to portray the arrest of those criminals as arbitrary acts against "democratic" political opponents.
"The U.S. is deeply concerned by the issuance of arrest orders and detentions against at least 33 Venezuelans," he said, adding that these arrests run contrary to the October 2023 electoral roadmap agreement signed between the Unitary Platform and the Venezuelan government.
"Actions that run counter to the spirit and the letter of the Barbados Agreement will have consequences," Matthew said, demanding the Venezuelan authorities "a clear timeline for the 2024 presidential election, and to reinstate all political candidates."
On Tuesday night, President Maduro spoke about the political destabilization attempts, highlighting the role that the alliance between civilians and military played in their failure.
“We discovered and defeated five conspiracies they had against Venezuela. The perpetrators are captured! They wanted to fill the country with violence and we prevented it with military and popular intelligence,” he said, emphasizing that “Venezuela wants Peace!”