Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News this week that he would never consider buying oil from socialist Venezuela, which has called for such a deal.
In an extensive interview in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Giammattei also suggested that rumors of US sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry may stem from what he calls the Biden administration’s inaction in the face of drug traffickers. Airplanes full of food are flying from the Caribbean to America.
In March, reports began to surface that Biden had sent a delegation to Venezuela to negotiate with the regime, which was later endorsed by Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. America does not recognize Maduro as president of Venezuela, as he officially lost that title after a fraudulent election in 2019. Maduro reiterated this week that Biden administration officials met with a senior regime official in Caracas.
An uncompromising conservative, Giammattei visits the United States for various events, including a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcas, the Organization of American States leaders summit, and a speech at the 2022 International Summit on Religious Freedom:
At the beginning of my study tour in Washington, I had a constructive dialogue with me. @SecMayorkassecretary too @DHSgov. We explore bilateral relations and discuss the common strategic agenda of the fight against Transnational crime and illegal human trafficking. pic.twitter.com/qWLbcRHRyo
– Alejandro Giammattei (@DrGiammatei) 28 June 2022
Since Biden’s election to the left, Giammetti has argued that America’s waning conservative position since Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez, Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo and Bolivian President Luis Arce became one of its leaders. In Central America, Guatemala shares territory with the Sandinista communist regime in Nicaragua, one of the most brutal dictatorships in the hemisphere.
When asked how difficult it was to lead Guatemala conservatively, Giammattei laughed and replied: “Very difficult – difficult! But we move forward, we fight for what we believe, what we truly believe. For our principles.
“I’ll give you an example. I see myself [struggling] With a lot of need, but I will not make a deal with the devil,” Giammattei told Breitbart News. “Buying oil from Venezuela by Maduro, who committed crimes against Venezuelan citizens with the greatest immigration. [crisis]who bargains with the devil and leaves him [my] principles. “
“If I believe in democracy,” the president concluded, “Maduro may have oil and I may need something, but I won’t buy a gallon. I won’t buy it for one simple reason: I’ll feed the devil.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Giammattei said that Venezuela is a major center for drug trafficking and questioned why US authorities are not taking adequate action.
Evidence compiled over the years by U.S. government and transnational crime experts indicates that almost every senior official of the Maduro regime is involved in drug trafficking, particularly the cocaine trade. Diosdado Cabello, who heads Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), has been repeatedly elected as the leader of Cartel de los Soles, a cocaine trafficking organization run by the Venezuelan military. In 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the dismissal of Maduro Oil Minister Tarek El Aissami on charges of “facilitating the supply of drugs from Venezuela, including the control of drones flying from Venezuelan air bases and drug trafficking routes.” ”via Venezuelan ports.
In 2017, Franchi Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, two of Maduro’s nephews, were sentenced to 18 years in prison for trying to smuggle cocaine into New York.
“There is something wrong here,” said the President of Guatemala, regarding the US transnational drug problem. “I’ll explain why. 50 percent of the world’s drugs are consumed here.”
“When we see every day how planes crash in Venezuela, and when we learn that planes crash in Venezuela, now there are negotiations with Maduro, I hope they negotiate so that the planes do not fly. They carry drugs. from there,” Giammattei continued, “but 95 percent of the planes landed in Venezuela and arrived empty-handed. They were not carrying money, they were empty and flying with drugs. Where is the money? Here. “
“If we know where planes are flying, why has the US done nothing to stop planes from flying out of Venezuela?” Giammattei asked. “O! They’re negotiating for oil.”
In March, news broke for the first time that representatives of Biden traveled to Caracas to discuss Venezuelan oil purchases as a way to avoid high American fuel prices and change Russia’s oil supply. Most of the western world stopped buying Russian oil after Moscow escalated its eight-year occupation of Ukraine in February. But Venezuela is heavily indebted to Russia, which means that any oil revenue generated by the Maduro regime will likely go to finance the Russian government.
Following the March reports, Biden administration officials said May’s foundation reports would allow the White House to allow talks between the US oil company Chevron and the Maduro regime and “temporarily lift the US ban on such discussions.”
“This prevents[Chevron]from entering into any deals with PDVSA or any other PDVSA-related activity,” Biden officials said at the time. “Actually, what you do is only allowed to be said.”
Nicolas Maduro announced on Monday that Biden has sent a second delegation to meet with officials this weekend.
I was talking to Jorge Rodriguez. It is currently hosting a delegation from the United States,” Maduro said, referring to the head of the Socialist-controlled National Assembly. “An important US government delegation arrived in Venezuela two hours ago. And it is working to restart communications and resume the bilateral agenda, which began on March 5.”
Giammattei is one of the strongest opponents of the Venezuelan regime in Latin America. In one of his first acts in office in 2020, Giammattei severed Guatemala’s diplomatic relations with Maduro, months after Maduro blocked a trip to Venezuela to recognize the legitimate but powerless President Juan Guaidó.
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Source: Breitbart
