Venezuela, Maduro declares state of emergency: “Implement defense plans”

Rome, Jan. 3 (LaPresse) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared a national state of emergency after the explosions that hit Caracas and has denounced the attacks as an attempt by the United States to seize his country’s oil and mineral resources. In the statement, as reported by the BBC, it is said that the attacks on Caracas aim to “seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly oil and minerals” and to “forcibly break the political independence of the nation”. Maduro has “signed and ordered the implementation of the decree declaring a state of external agitation throughout the national territory”. He has also ordered that all national defense plans be implemented “at the appropriate time and under the appropriate circumstances”, urging “all the social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and to condemn this imperialist attack”.