Maduro’s latest accusation against Trump: “They want to impose a model of colonial and slave-owning domination”

Amid a climate of tension that has long defined relations between Venezuela and the United States, President Nicolás Maduro has once again publicly lashed out at the government of Donald Trump.

He argued that Washington’s pressure is not aimed at combating drug trafficking or defending democracy, but rather at seizing Venezuela’s natural resources through what he described as a “model of colonial and slave domination”.

Speaking at an official event broadcast on state television, Maduro claimed that certain “powerful sectors in the United States” are fabricating a false reality to justify covert intervention. He accused media outlets and influential groups of promoting a narrative that, in his view, is designed to facilitate such a plan. “It is impossible that powerful sectors in the United States could fabricate a virtual reality and impose a colonial and slave-owning model of domination on Bolívar’s Venezuela in order to steal its natural resources,” the president said.

Maduro’s remarks come at a moment of heightened diplomatic strain. Washington has stepped up its actions against his government, including the deployment of naval forces in the Caribbean to intercept sanctioned oil tankers and restrict crude exports that the United States considers part of efforts to evade sanctions.

The Trump administration, for its part, maintains that its measures are intended to curb the alleged financing of illicit activities, such as drug trafficking and terrorism, which US officials say are facilitated by the Venezuelan authorities. It has also pointed to the need to recover “oil rights” for US companies and to apply economic pressure on Caracas in order to force political change.

These mutual accusations have also spilled over into international forums. Venezuela has brought its complaint before the United Nations, denouncing what it sees as an attack on its sovereignty, while the United States defends its actions as a necessary component of its foreign policy towards a government it considers illegitimate.

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International analysts warn that this exchange of accusations, along with perceptions of US interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs, risks further deepening polarisation between the two countries, complicating any future attempts at dialogue. In response, Maduro has reiterated his call for national unity and for preserving what he describes as Venezuela’s independence from “external ambitions”.

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