All the evil that American imperialism is trying to do to us today is increasingly turning into blessings of life, of struggle, of independence, of prosperity, and, above all, of a guaranteed future for this Venezuelan homeland.

We cannot fail the Venezuelan people, we can never fail them.

We will defend these people, because these people have a right to their land, their wealth, their homeland, always.

Yesterday and today the government of the United States said that Venezuela's oil and materials belong to them and that the Venezuelans stole their petroleum.

Simply, it is warmongering and colonialist pretension.

We have said it. And now everyone sees the truth. The truth has been revealed.

The U.S. seeks to impose a puppet government that wouldn't last even 48 hours, which gives away the constitution, the sovereignty, and all of the richness and turns Venezuela into a colony.

That is never going to happen.

It is illegal in accordance with the UN Charter and all of the international agreements to stop the free commerce by sea in the seas and the oceans of the world.

Venezuela will continue doing commerce with all of its products, including all of our natural resources, which are only owned by the sovereign people of Venezuela.

The American escalation is illegal, disproportionate, unnecessary, and absolutely corresponding to what I told the UN Secretary General, "The Diplomacy of Barbarism."

It is not the time for barbarism. It is the time for human civilization. It is time for respect for international law.

Venezuela will make its rights be respected with force and with the truth and with love for peace.

I have no doubt of what our people are doing, and I have no doubt of what our people in the military will do to prevail our historical rights on our land, our petroleum, our minerals, our wealth, and all of our national territory.

We, the Bolivarian revolutionaries of the South, the South Americans, and the Venezuelan revolutionaries, are real; we are flesh and blood, and we are millions and millions of passionate men and women, entire families of neighborhoods.

We are a true power and have deep roots.

We are victorious in any circumstance that we have lived and that we will live.

I make my call. Reaffirmed, with the deep love of a great Colombian that I feel myself to be, to the ordinary people of Colombia, to its social movements, to its political forces, and to the Colombian military, whom I know very well, for perfect union with Venezuela.

So that no one dares to touch the sovereignty of our countries and to fulfill Bolívar's decree of permanent union and shared happiness.