Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s words in English are laughable

“If you want, I want. If you don’t, I don’t.” That’s the message Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro sent to his US President Joe Biden during a press conference on Tuesday, April 16, shortly before the deadline for whether or not to reimpose sanctions on Venezuelan oil.

A simple message means: “If you want, I want. If you don’t, neither do I,” Who has “Made the entire audience laugh” Chavista has been in power since 2013 and is the new candidate in the July 28, 2024 elections, due to the president’s base accent. According to the newspaper El Nacional, He inserts a video of this comical moment into his article.

However, the situation is serious. This Thursday, April 18, the US may choose to reinstate sanctions on Venezuelan oil imposed by former US President Donald Trump and temporarily lifted in exchange for free elections. A promise made by Maduro at the head of a wave of repression unleashed against the Venezuelan opposition.

Technically, “General License 44 issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) on October 2023” During the agreements reached between the Venezuelan government and the opposition on the island of Barbados – with the support of the United States -, recalled National. she “Approves transactions with state oil company PDVSA and investments in Venezuela’s energy sector”.

But six months after the decision gave some oxygen to Venezuela’s main export, the Socialist Party, which has been in power since 1999, higher courts and the electoral commission are still preventing candidates from registering to run. And especially Maria Corina Machado, its main representative, who has won all the polls.

Still, the re-imposition of sanctions that have crippled an economy that has been mired in a severe economic crisis for ten years, however, does not seem to have unduly alarmed Maduro.

“We are not a colony of gringos (a nickname given to Americans), we are not your colony, no one will stop us”, He added during a press conference on Tuesday. It’s not certain, however, that the more than 7 million Venezuelans displaced by the crisis share the same view.