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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has fired back at President Donald Trumps call for the military to support the nation’s self-declared interim-President Juan Guaidó.
Trump issued the call during a speech Monday at the FIU Ocean Bank Convocation Center on the main campus in West Miami-Dade, just south of Doral, home to the largest concentration of Venezuelans in the U.S.
During the speech, President Trump called on Maduro to formally leave power in Venezuela and allow Guaidó’s government to take over.
“Maduro is not a Venezuelan patriot. He is a Cuban puppet, that’s what he is,” said Trump.
Guaidó has invoked articles 233 and 333 of the Venezuelan constitution to become interim president. Those articles stipulate that when there is no president, the president of the National Assembly assumes power.
The country’s National Assembly deemed Maduro’s recent presidential reelection a sham after opposition parties were not allowed to participate, leaving a void at the presidency.
The Trump administration, along with 50 other nations, have declared Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly, the rightful president of Venezuela.
“The days of socialism and communism are numbered, not only in Venezuela but in Nicaragua and in Cuba as well,” he said, adding that both countries have “such unbelievable potential.”
Trump’s message to the Venezuelan military, “If you choose this path, you will lose everything.”
Maduro responded to Trump in comments broadcast on state television. He accused the U.S. president of speaking in an “almost Nazi-style” and lashed out at Trump for thinking he can deliver orders to Venezuela’s military.
“Today Donald Trump in Miami with his tired rhetoric questioned the right of our free country to adopt the ideas of Christian human socialism instead of our socialism. It was almost a Nazi-style speech to prohibit ideologies. Donald Trump wants to ban ideologies, political diversity, and wants to impose the unique thinking of the white supremacists in the White House. No, Venezuela will continue to diversify ideas, Venezuela will continue to be multi-colored,” he said.
Maduro has blocked US humanitarian aid from entering the country, it’s now stuck in Colombia.
Maduro said 300 tons of aid from Russia will arrive on Wednesday.
Guaidó has called for a massive worldwide march for February 23 to let humanitarian aid into the country.