Colombia President Petro teases Trump: 'Texas was invaded, stolen... Give it back!'

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro
Photo: AFP

Amid the brewing tensions between the US and the Latin American nation, Colombian President Gustavo Petro taunted his US counterpart, Donald Trump and insisted that the state of Texas was ‘invaded’, ‘Firstpost’ quotes.

While speaking on the recent tensions in the region, Petro called out Trump over recent comments about the justification of the country’s blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan tankers.

“Texas is a territory that was invaded. It wasn’t sold. So was California and all of the southern US,” Petro began. On Saturday. The Colombian president was referring to the fact that Trump, on Wednesday, demanded that Venezuela return all assets it seized from US oil companies years ago.

“You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it — they illegally took it,” Trump said as he launched verbal attacks against the country’s President Nicolas Maduro.

While speaking on the matter, Petro went on to insist that a “Latin American President can’t say ‘give it back, it was stolen from us.” “But he (Trump) can say ‘give it back, it was stolen’ when talking about Venezuelan oil. So let’s make a deal. You give back what you stole from and what they think we stole from them, which we haven’t, well, let’s discuss it,” he added.

According to Fortune, American oil companies played a leading role in Venezuela’s oil industry for decades until different governments nationalised the sector, first in the 1970s and in recent years by Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. At that time, compensation offered by the Venezuelan government was deemed insufficient, the outlet added, recalling that in 2014 an international arbitration panel ordered the country to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil.

The Trump administration is reportedly intending to continue with the blockade and could even move into Venezuelan waters to seize more, Axios reported. A Trump official told the news outlet that the American forces are currently waiting for the vessels to leave the waters to seize them, but they could go in if they delay much.

In the midst of all this, The Guardian reported that Venezuela’s oil exports have plummeted after the seizure last week. Since the seizure, the outlet claimed, only tankers chartered by US oil company Chevron have sailed through the region carrying Venezuelan crude.

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