Maduro announced this afternoon that there were 75 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Venezuela, bringing the total in the country since the outbreak began in March to 824.
As has become common during the daily government COVID-19 updates, Maduro stressed the assertion that 67 of these cases had been ‘imported” from abroad, meaning that they were brought into the country by people who were infected outside of Venezuela.
Maduro also took the opportunity to accuse Colombian president Ivan Duque of personally wanting to cause the virus to spread in Venezuela. Without presenting any evidence, Maduro claimed that Duque had ordered Colombian authorities to deliberately infect Venezuelans that were on buses heading into the country.
Padrino Lopez: Venezuelan Forces Will Escort Iran Tankers in Caribbean
Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez said today that the Venezuelan Navy and Air Force will escort the five Iranian oil tankers that are currently underway to Venezuela once they enter the country’s waters.
During a televised statement, Padrino Lopez spoke at length about the right for countries to develop relations with one another, and said that Venezuela had a right to receive assistance from whomever it chose. To this end, he added, the “[vessels] and airplanes from the National Bolivarian Armed Forces” would escort the five tankers once they entered Venezuelan waters “to welcome them (…) and to thank the people of Iran”.
Below, Padrino Lopez’s comments:
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