Venezuela's Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo, a former general appointed by Nicolas Maduro in late 2017 to lead Venezuela's oil industry and state oil firm PDVSA, has said that a terrorist attack was carried out on a PDVSA pumping station in the state of Monagas, the teleSUR news outlet reported on Wednesday.
Quevedo denounced the attack, which he said was aimed at cutting off Venezuela's oil exports, according to teleSUR. No people were killed or injured in the sabotage, the minister said.
"Yesterday we listened to the war allocation by the U.S. President, and call to violence, and now we start to see that violence and terrorist attacks," teleSUR quoted Quevedo as saying. According to the minister, the right-wing parties in Venezuela were behind the attack, as they don't have a political project and that's why they "recurred to violence, led by the U.S. government who has lost their masks and pretend to lead us to a war among equals," as carried by teleSUR.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged members of the Venezuelan military to abandon support for Maduro or "lose everything."
President Trump also tweeted: "I ask every member of the Maduro regime: End this nightmare of poverty, hunger and death. LET YOUR PEOPLE GO. Set your country free! Now is the time for all Venezuelan Patriots to act together, as one united people. Nothing could be better for the future of Venezuela!"
The United States and many European countries have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela amid the political crisis in the country sitting on top of the world's largest crude oil reserves.
The U.S. sanctions on Venezuela from late January are expected to speed up the decline of Venezuelan exports, which have been falling over the past three years as oil production has been plunging due to lack of investment, mismanagement, and a rampant economic crisis.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More
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