Maduro interprets Trump's UN comments as death threat

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said he considered US President Donald Trump's remarks in his United Nations General Assembly speech to be a death threat.

"I know that I'm interpreting the threat that Donald Trump made yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday) correctly and exactly and I want to tell the public, Trump today threatened the president of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with death," Maduro said on Tuesday from the presidential palace in Caracas in radio and television broadcast, Efe news reported.

The Venezuelan leader also called Trump "the new Hitler of international politics".

The US president, during his speech before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, said that Venezuela "is collapsing," adding that Washington is "prepared to take further action" -- although stopping short of saying whether that would include military action - if Maduro "persists on a path to impose authoritarian rule" in Caracas.

Trump on Monday met in New York his counterparts from Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos; Panama, Juan Carlos Varela; Brazil, Michel Temer; and Argentine Vice President Gabriela Michetti at a meeting that Maduro said was like "the Last Supper", when Jesus predicted his betrayal by one of his Apostles.

After that meeting, Trump urged the "full restoration" of democracy and political freedoms in Venezuela.

The mogul said that the South American country's current situation of political turmoil is unsustainable and "completely unacceptable", and he recalled the sanctions that Washington has imposed on the Maduro government since he assumed the US presidency.

Meanwhile, Santos said Monday that the situation in Venezuela was causing concern in the region, adding that his "prime interest is defending the Venezuelan people, seeing that their rights are respected, democracy is restored" and discussing the manner in which countries can coordinate their efforts "to try and produce a peaceful transition" of power there.

According to Maduro, those Latin American leaders met to "receive orders from the Devil", emphasizing that he "will continue governing" Venezuela regardless of what other nations may think.

--IANS

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