Venezuela’s embattled leader, Nicolás Maduro, has warned Donald Trump he will leave the White House “stained with blood” if he insists on pursuing what he called a “dirty” imperialist conspiracy to overthrow him.
“Stop. Stop, Trump! Hold it right there! You are making mistakes that will leave your hands covered in blood and you will leave the presidency stained with blood,” Maduro warned during a combative interview with the Spanish journalist Jordi Évole. “Why would you want a repeat of Vietnam?”
He also rejected European calls for elections, saying: “We don’t accept ultimatums from anyone. I refuse to call for elections now – there will be elections in 2024. We don’t care what Europe says.”
But Maduro denied that his country was suffering from a humanitarian emergency and claimed no more than 800,000 people had fled.
“Venezuela does not have a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “Venezuela has a political crisis. Venezuela has an economic crisis … Many people have been tricked into leaving.”
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