Attempt to solidify with Latin American countries and Canada against the United States
On March 28, 2019, during her press briefing at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova agreed in part with a recent Lima Group statement on Venezuela.
According to Maria Zakharova, Russia supports Latin American countries and Canada in their condemnation of any provocation or military deployment that threatens peace and security in the region. The Spokeswoman also repeated their call to all nations to cooperatively look for solutions to the existing crisis. However, she did not mention the essence of the statement, i.e. “the arrival of two Russian military aircraft in Venezuela.” And that was the main reason for issuing this paper, although the importance of collaboration with the Maduro regime, which, nevertheless, was pronounced as illegitimate, was expressed for the sake of Venezuela’s future.
#Zakharova: A new batch of humanitarian aid was recently delivered to #Caracas according to #UN Resolution 46/182, following a request from the
government. We urge all responsible members of the world community to follow rules, not impose their “kindness” by force
— MFA Russia
(@mfa_russia) 28 марта 2019 г.
As reported by various mass media, Russia allegedly brought up to 100 militants by the two aircraft to Venezuela on March 24, 2019. The United States negatively reacted on this information with an attempt to pass the Russian-Venezuelan Threat Mitigation Act introduced earlier on February 28. Moreover, before his bilateral meeting with Juan Guaidó’s wife Fabiana Rosales who visited the White House on March 27, the US President Donald Trump stated that “Russia has to get out.” Such rhetoric led to a rising tide of discontent in Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova justified the presence of “Russian specialists on Venezuelan territory” by the 2001 Agreement on military-technical cooperation between the governments of Russia and Venezuela. At the same time, the Ministry refuses to elaborate on numbers and tasks of these Russians.
