The Daily Journal.- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called last Saturday for the “prompt release” of Nicolás Maduro, who remains in a New York prison after U.S. forces captured him during a military operation in Caracas earlier this year.
“We insist on the prompt release of the Venezuelan leader and his wife, and that such excesses not be repeated in the future,” Lavrov said during his address to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
He stressed that the events earlier this year constituted “a violation of every norm, including moral norms,” citing Maduro’s imprisonment without trial. Lavrov also emphasized that “international law” protects “the immunity and inviolability of senior state officials.”
Russia’s position contrasted with the Venezuelan delegation’s silence at the multilateral summit. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez avoided mentioning her predecessor during her speech and did not directly address the bombings of Caracas and La Guaira that Washington carried out on January 3.
According to the interim president, Venezuela has faced “two great and painful trials in its life as a nation” this year. One of them, she said, stemmed from “the strangulation of its internal political life and the heightened confrontation with the United States of America.” At the same time, the second was the double earthquake that struck on June 24.
“Despite these tremendous blows in life, as the poet César Vallejo would say, for Venezuelan men and women, Venezuela is reborn today,” she declared.
Against that backdrop, the interim president said she was willing to rebuild ties with Washington and explicitly thanked U.S. President Donald Trump, one day after holding her first in-person meeting with him in New York.
“At this 81st United Nations General Assembly, I want to thank President Donald Trump and his administration for their willingness to resume the path toward diplomatic relations and cooperation with Venezuela,” she said.
