MINSK, 16 February (BelTA) - I offered the USA an ideal course of action regarding Venezuela, but they committed a foolish act, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with State Secretary of the Union State Sergey Glazyev on 16 February, BelTA has learned.
“I keep telling them [the USA], telling them frankly, where they are wrong. They are wrong about Maduro, they committed a foolish act. I warned them. At the suggestion of the Americans [not on my own, they asked me], I was drawn into this issue. I offered them the ideal option. The ideal option! But they went their own way. Donald wanted to somehow appease the military,” the president said.
“So what did they accomplish? You always have to think: you took a step, but what comes after? Well, what now? What kind of drug trafficking charges can they pin on Maduro? What can they accuse him of? Well, prove that he led some cartel. And the fact that the whole world trades in drugs, well, that’s just how it is,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “And if we are talking about drugs, I also recently told the Americans, while discussing issues with them, that the way Europe behaves is a nightmare. They bring synthetic drugs [in here]. Well, mostly into Russia, of course, they smuggle them through us. And we recently seized a whole carload, over a tonne of drugs, I think. One car was transporting it. So the whole world trades in this. We need to fight it. Perhaps the way it’s done in Belarus. Instead of accusing, you know, that Maduro is…”

Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that nevertheless, the main reason for U.S. actions in Venezuela was not Maduro, but oil. “And this issue could have been resolved calmly. Especially since the oil that Venezuela extracts is heavy, sulfuric, thick oil. And the refining capacity is only in the United States of America. Couldn’t this issue have been resolved? It could have been,” the Belarusian leader is convinced.
