Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro said the country will "stand tall" against a "new imperialistic ramming" after the Trump administration blew up a vessel off its coast, killing 11 people it claimed were transporting drugs.
Speaking at a political rally, Maduro said the country will "remain on its feet with serenity, firmly and with rock-hard faith in victory and peace."
"We're good people, people who love peace, but know this: we're fierce warriors when they mess with our land, with our history and with our rights. This lands belongs to the Venezuelans and there will be no sell-outs or empire that can touch or desecrate the holy land the liberators gave us," Maduro added.
Maduro did not directly address the attack carried out by U.S. forces. However, officials in the Trump administration have said the episode is a direct warning to him. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Maduro "should be worried" as a result of it.
"The only one who should be worried is Nicolas Maduro, who is acting as the kingpin of a narco state. Not actually elected and indicted for $50 million by the U.S. We know he's involved in the kind of drug-running that has affected the American people directly," Hegseth said during an interview on Fox News.
Hegseth added that officials "knew exactly who were on that boat and what they were doing." "It's a new dawn. Those 11 drug-traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear sign that the U.S. won't tolerate this kind of activity in our hemisphere," he added.
In another passage of the interview, Hegseth said the attack was not a one-off. "We've got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won't it won't stop with just this strike," he said.
Maduro has labeled the deployment of U.S. assets off the country's coast as its "biggest threat in 100 years." "Eight warships with 1,200 missiles and a nuclear submarine are pointed at Venezuela," he said this week.
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