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The people of the United States should know that this is a war. Experts call it an unconventional war. It is an economic, financial, trade war.
The United States, the government of the United States, persecutes Venezuela so that it cannot buy medicine around the world. They persecute us so we cannot buy food, supplies, commodities, so we cannot buy anything around the world.
They stole Citgo from us. In the United States, you see Citgo gas stations those are Venezuelan and the government of the United States expropriated it. They expropriated it.
They have frozen accounts worth over $20 billion in banks in Europe and around the world. It is persecution.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: $1.3 billion from the Bank of England.
NICOLAS MADURO: Just in gold reserves of the Central Bank of Venezuela. You know that central banks in countries have special immunity that's a post-war agreement. Special immunity for central banks.
And all the gold reserves they have around the world have special immunity according to international law. Well, the U.S. Government, in complicity with the British government, have frozen, have stolen over 1.4 billion dollars from Venezuela in gold reserves. Venezuela's gold reserves.
So we are facing this war with work, with creativity, with perseverance, with resistance.
I can tell the people of the United States that sooner rather than later, we will defeat all of these criminal policies.
I can tell the people of the United States, that with all of the sanctions, the persecution, the aggression, they haven't been able to overcome our fighting spirit, our dignity. And they won't be able to. Venezuela stands up. Every time we're hit, we stand up with work, with production, with productivity.
On the third part of your question, yes, we have alliances around the world with independent governments for trade, financial and energy relations, and we will keep moving forward.
MAX BLUMENTHAL: I want to ask you another question about sanctions. In 2016, your government created a program known as CLAP, to help offset some of the social costs of sanctions, to distribute food for very low cost, along with sanitary supplies, to now 6 million families not 6 million people, but 6 million families, which is a large percentage of Venezuela's population.
Now the United States says that it wants to sanction the CLAP program, while it is denying Venezuela assets to buy food for import. An advisor to the opposition candidate Henri Falcà ³n has written an article and told our colleague Aaron Mate' that he believes that as a result of these sanctions Venezuela will experience a famine in the next 12 months. And he said that the sanctions are designed to do just that, to cause a famine.
Is this something you're concerned about? And considering that the US blocks you every time you try to get out from this economic blockade, what can you do in concrete terms to prevent this from happening?
NICOLAS MADURO: This didn't happen in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. If you remember, Saddam Hussein's Iraq had U.N. approved sanctions. They were not unilateral measures. They were not illegal. They were multilateral and legal. Although they may have been unjust.
The U.N. Security council approved an oil for food program. Oil for medicine. Even Saddam Hussein, at this time when he was in a military war with the U.S. the UN Security Council opened a path for him to import food and medicine.
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