The ALBA-TCP member states categorically rejected the announcement by the US government to impose tariffs of 25 percent on countries that trade hydrocarbons with Venezuela, it was reported today.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty stated in a communiqué last night that such a measure violates the most elementary rules of international trade, as it generates an openly discriminatory treatment towards the Bolivarian Republic.

It declared that the US punitive measure has the well-known objective of «affecting its national income and the health of its economy, generating suffering among the population».

The Latin American and Caribbean integration bloc denounced «the absurd motivation of this measure of economic aggression», which seeks to justify the criminalisation and stigmatisation of the Venezuelan migrant population, by promoting the systematic violation of their human rights.

All of this, he said, is outside the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter, international law and international covenants on respect for the migrant population.

ALBA-TCP pointed out that following the format of unfounded and ideological aggressions, the government of the United States «is committing a new attack against Venezuela», by announcing the imposition of extortive trade measures.

He stressed that these measures are aimed at affecting the smooth running of the Venezuelan economy, «with the clear objective of destabilising the institutions and peace in our sister nation».

The Bolivarian Alliance considered this context inadmissible and urged the international community to unequivocally condemn this illegal, criminal and hostile action by the US government.

It stressed that this action not only threatens the development and well-being of the Venezuelan people, «but also constitutes a real threat to the peoples of all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean».