“We demand the return of Maduro and the First Lady,” López said in a news conference.
“This is an act of aggression against the legitimate president of Venezuela and the First Lady.”
“We demand her return and the return of our commander in chief, the president, and we draw attention to everything that is happening to Venezuela against its sovereignty,” he added.
The defense minister stated that “much of” Maduro’s security team was killed in the United States’ strikes on Saturday.
The raid saw the “cold-bloodedly killing (of) much of his security team, soldiers, and innocent civilians,” López noted in a video address.
He warned that US President Donald Trump’s decision to capture Maduro and his wife constitutes a threat to geopolitical stability.
“This represents a real threat to world order,” he continued, adding, “If today it was Venezuela, tomorrow it could be any state, any country.”
Padrino López went on to criticize the Trump administration’s foreign policy more widely.
“We reject the colonialist ideas that they want to implement, in the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, over Latin America and the Caribbean,” he stated.
