We will eat the gringos alive if they invade us

Yesterday President Maduro explained the month long opposition protests in Venezuela as an ongoing coup attempt lead by the US government:

“It is by now evident that the United States has openly assumed the leadership in overthrowing the government of Venezuela. It is so: the government of the Unites States is hostage of the policies of the Republican lobby and the right wing lobbies of Miami. (…) [Those lobbies] should take a deep breath [cojan mínimo], because they are driving President Obama into an abyss.”

Maduro warned that even though the colectivos are groups devoted to “political work and social peace,” they would respond to an intervention by the United States by defending the country: “All the colectivos, in any given moment, if someday we were to be invaded, would come out like ants and would eat the gringos alive, like it happened in Vietnam, (…) and not only here, but all over Latin America.”

These warnings are a response to recent declarations by US Secretary John Kerry: “We are prepared, if necessary, to invoke the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) and get involved in various ways, through sanctions or otherwise, but the economy there is already quite fragile,” said Kerry.

Despite the strong anti-imperialist rhetoric deployed yesterday Maduro added that “the Bolivarian Government will maintain its relations with the United States, firmly, prudently, and with clarity.”