Venezuela’s foreign minister attacks Southern Command chief

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil has rebuffed a visit to Chile this week by Southern Command Commander Laura Richardson, who has recalled the long history of U.S. interference in the region, particularly its support for authoritarian regimes in the Southern Cone.

“The commander of Southern Command chose to go to Chile, where her predecessor met with (dictator Augusto) Pinochet and directed the Condor program that murdered thousands of Latin Americans, to talk about democracy,” Gil wrote on his account Thursday, according to the Telegraph.

On Wednesday, Richardson participated in a South American defense conference in Chile, where he assured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that he “continues to undermine the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.”

For this reason, after recalling Washington’s unlimited support for bloody dictatorships in countries like Chile, Gill issued harsh words to the head of the Southern Command: “Your cynicism is too serious!”

For the prime minister, Richardson’s attack is not without reason, because in Venezuela “the heirs of fascism and Latin American dictatorships are fighting against them, who today dream of reversing the revolutionary process in our region.”

Likewise, he argued that “ridiculous threats” from U.S. officials “do nothing to galvanize small violent and terrorist groups operating in Venezuela,” an apparent reference to the radical opposition the government holds responsible for post-election violence following the July 28 election. “They’ve lost again. Mrs. Richardson: Game over!”

The Chile conference was convened by Southern Command to “leverage new technologies to jointly defend hemispheric sovereignty.” The four-day event brought together representatives from 14 countries, including Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, as well as the United States and the conference host country.

According to the Chilean government, the event focused on topics such as “the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in national defense, in addition to creating a space for dialogue to develop a common framework for action in space affairs.”