Venezuelan Does Not Accept Blackmail: Legislator Rodriguez

On Thursday, Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, rejected the statements of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that conditioned the relief of unilateral sanctions on the political authorization of opposition politicians.

RELATED: 

Partial Easing of US Sanctions Against Venezuela

"We will never accept that anyone interferes in matters that only concern Venezuela," he said, referring to the agreements reached between the administration of President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition, which are related to the 2024 presidential elections.

"We are not going to accept interference of any kind. They are trying to impose actions that are not supported by the electoral political agreement," Rodriguez said and warned that he could reveal details of the conversations with the opposition if necessary to dismantle any interventionist maneuver carried out from abroad.

“We cannot reveal some conversations unless we are forced to. If the lie persists, however, we will reveal details of the conversations we have had.”

According to Venezuelan constitution and laws, no citizen disqualified from participating politically can be a candidate. For this reason, Rodriguez recalled that disqualified opposition politicians will not be able to be part of the 2024 electoral process, adding that the White House's claims ignore the Venezuelan laws.

Blinken's statements “express immense ignorance about how the Venezuelan legal system and laws work. They should know that Venezuela does not accept interference from any country,” he said.

"Worry about keeping what you promised. We will fulfill what we say. We are people of our word, and each of the letters in the agreement have been evaluated by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."

A few hours earlier, Juan Gonzalez, the director of Hemispheric Affairs at the White House National Security Council, indicated that the U.S. will not relax sanctions against Venezuela if the Bolivarian government does not guarantee the “rehabilitation” of opposition politicians and the release of U.S. prisoners, as reported by VOA.

"Our expectation and understanding is that before the end of November we will see the rehabilitation of all the candidates and that we will begin to see the release of Americans and Venezuelans unjustly detained," Gonzalez said.

He mentioned that the relaxation of sanctions against Venezuela “has to be measured step by step,” as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had already indicated the day before.

Gonzalez also indicated that the success of the relaxation of sanctions is based on the implementation of the agreement on "the electoral route that was negotiated by Venezuelans."