The U.S. President, Donald Trump, has once again shown his contempt for international law and the repeated violation of the founding Charter of the United Nations, by signing an executive order that expands the economic, commercial and financial blockade against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Not content with the damage he has already caused with the confiscation and theft of Venezuelan funds and its main source of revenue from oil, it now is freezing the Venezuelan government's assets and forbids any economic transaction with the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro.

The extraterritorial character of the measure, similar to those adopted against Cuba, Iran and North Korea, imposes by force greater suffering on the Venezuelan population with the clear purpose of destroying the government democratically elected by the people with 68% of the votes, as a way to seize the enormous natural wealth and resources of Venezuela, fundamentally its oil.

At the height of shamelessness and subordination to the empire, the vassal Juan Guaidó congratulated the measures announced by Trump against his own people.

Trump and his hawks once again reiterate that "all options are on the table," a clear allusion to the possibility of military intervention. This threat has failed for 8 months due to the resistance of the Venezuelan people and their Bolivarian National Armed Forces -FANB- which they have not been able to divide or bend.

Coinciding with the new measures announced, an International Conference convened by the Lima Group took place in Peru, in which the United States, in its supposed role of "observer", designed the road map. Among the participants, the most despicable and most warlike of Trump's hawk advisers, John Bolton, who had the audacity and hypocrisy to affirm in his speech that Maduro uses death squads, trained and equipped by Cuba, to kidnap, imprison, torture and kill almost 10,000 of its citizens. The Lima meeting ended in nothingness, with the absence of more than half of the invited guests. It only served as a U.S. tribune of threats and outbursts to those who do not bow down to their interests.

We demand that Bolton show evidence of his elaborate lies and we tell him that people are not ignorant, we know very well who uses death squads and trains mercenaries to assassinate social fighters on the continent and around the world.

"It takes much more than a supremacist magnate in an electoral campaign, or an old-fashioned war hawk (...), to undo the libertarian work initiated by Simón Bolívar and retaken in the 21st century by Commander Hugo Chávez." That's what Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said. "We will not allow this tendentious escalation of aggression to affect the processes of political dialogue in the country. It is our unshakable will to reach national agreements in different dimensions, to further strengthen democracy and guarantee the right of the people to live in Peace".

Cuba, Russia and China were the first to react: "It's plunder, a robbery, a brutal aggression against Venezuela," Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel said on Twitter, adding. "A cowardly action against Venezuelan assets responds to Washington's frustration in the face of the courage and resistance of the Bolivarian Revolution," reiterating once again Cuba's solidarity with the people of Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the blockade of Venezuelan assets by the United States as an act of "economic terror," underscoring that the measure has no legal basis. "After numerous failures in the military seizure of power in Venezuela, Washington bets on the worsening of the social and economic situation guided by the principle of 'the worse, the better', these harsh restrictions affect, above all, the most vulnerable layers of society, the elderly, the sick and children. This discriminatory line is a challenge to the entire system of international relations that establishes unilateral punitive measures as a daily norm and contradicts humanitarian and human rights values. We remind the U.S. that no State has the right to dictate its will to others through economic repression."

Through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China advised the United States to "learn the lessons of history" and "abandon its plans to create dissent in Venezuelan society."

The European Union recalled that it opposes the extraterritorial application of restrictive measures such as those recently imposed by the United States on Venezuela. "Our position is well known, we oppose the extraterritorial application of unilateral measures."

On his twitter account, President Nicolás Maduro called for popular unity, resistance and mobilization to confront economic and political terrorism in this new phase of aggression. "Our fierce resistance and capacity for struggle is the key to confront the criminal aggressions of imperialism, the national and international right. We have the lineage of liberators, reason and moral force.  Faced with the blackmail and coercion they seek to impose on us, the FANB will remain firm and unwavering in its democratic convictions; it will never surrender because of imperial threats."

Delcy Rodriguez, Executive Vice President said, "I call for national unity, for the country's productive forces to guarantee the future, progress and development of the nation. That is the only way. We must expand sovereignty and food security, together we are going to defeat these illegal aggression coming from the United States government. She added that it is "a threat to the private sector on a global scale. All countries that have assets in the United States should be concerned."

The International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity reiterates its total solidarity with the people of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the legitimate President Nicolás Maduro. We make an urgent call to repudiate this flagrant violation of the human rights of the people of Venezuela.

Let's call things by its name: Let's repudiate with all our might the reactionary regime of the Empire.

Solidarity and International Mobilization with the heroic people of Venezuela and their legitimate government!

International Committee Peace, Justice and Dignity

August 10, 2019