Bashing US Sanctions, Venezuela VP Slams 'Decaying Empire'

Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami on Friday criticized U.S. sanctions launched against him, calling them a “desperate” attempt by a “decaying empire” to attack the Bolivarian Revolution.

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“It is not about aggressions and infamies pronounced against an individual, it is the desperate attempts of a decaying empire to crush a heroic people,” El Aissami told Supreme Tribunal of Justice members during a speech, HispanTV reports.

“It is an attack against an entire nation.”

El Aissami, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on Feb. 13 for supposed links to drug trafficking, called on Venezuelans to avoid being demoralized. He said it’s a good thing that “the empire poses its eyes on the children of Simon Bolivar” because it means the U.S. feels threatened by the Bolivarian Revolution.

The Venezuelan politician, who was born to Lebanese and Syrian parents, has also been accused by the U.S. of allegedly aiding “Middle Eastern terrorists.” To make things worse, he was placed on the Kingpin Act Designation, making him the highest-ranking Venezuelan official to be sanctioned by the U.S.

El Aissami has consistently denied all allegations and has accused the U.S. of slander, pointing out that there is no legitimate evidence proving his complicity.

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By punishing him, the U.S. is acting “as an extraterritorial police and without having powers to do so,” El Aissami wrote in a recent New York Times column. Criticizing the U.S. war on drugs, he said the North American country “owes the world and their own people a reflection on the resounding failure of their fight against drugs.”

But El Aissami isn’t the only Venezuelan politician denouncing the U.S. government’s attacks against the Bolivarian Revolution. 

Earlier this week, President Nicolas Maduro slammed a U.S. Senate resolution calling on President Donald Trump to heighten sanctions on Venezuela for alleged “human rights abuses.” Maduro warned against rising "fascism" in the White House.

“In spite of U.S. aggressions, our people are united in saying ‘you must respect Venezuela,’” Maduro said Wednesday during a government summit in Cumana.

“We will never be anyone’s colony ever again.”

The resolution, which calls on the Organization of American States, OAS, to suspend Venezuela, was unanimously passed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. The House of Representatives is expected to review the bill in the coming weeks.