Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez claimed Israeli involvement in the Saturday US military operation that struck state infrastructure and captured President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores.
“The governments of the world are shocked that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the victim and target of an attack of this nature, which undoubtedly has Zionist undertones,” Rodriguez said in a Saturday address in which she convened a National Defense Council. “It’s truly shameful.”
Rodriguez called for the immediate release of the president and first lady, asserting that their arrest came under false pretenses in order to effectuate regime change and seize the country’s natural resources.
Contrary to US President Donald Trump’s statements that Rodriguez was sworn in as president and was willing to work with the US, she said that Maduro was the country’s only president and announced that security forces had secured government buildings.
The vice president’s remarks about Zionist influence have alarmed some members of the small Venezuelan Jewish community, both within the country and abroad. Amid rising tensions between Venezuela and the US in November, Maduro had accused Zionists of trying to deliver his country to devils.
Maduro accuses Zionists of handing Venezuela over to devils amid US tensions
“There are those who want to hand this country over to the devils – you know who, right? The far-right Zionists want to hand this country over to the devils,” Maduro said at a November 15 Bolivarian Integral Base Committee event.
“Who will prevail? The people of [King] David, the people of God, the people of [Simón] Bolívar, or the imperialist demons?”
The president repeatedly emphasized that Venezuela was a Christian country, wondering why Americans would want to kill Christians, amid a US military buildup in the Caribbean and strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels.
“I place at the forefront of this battle our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom our homeland has been entrusted, the only king between heaven and Earth, Jesus of Nazareth, the young child and Palestinian martyr, Jesus of Nazareth,” Maduro said. “I place Jesus of Nazareth as commander-in-chief of the battle for peace and the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people.”