Venezuela is being run by a dictator, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday, without mentioning Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by name.
“I know it very well, and Venezuela is right now being run by a dictator,” Trump said in an interview on the Kick livestreaming platform.
Following a July 28 election, Venezuela’s electoral council declared President Maduro, in power since 2013, the winner with 51% of the vote, drawing accusations of fraud by the opposition.
The opposition says its own detailed tally showed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez likely received 67% of the vote.
In the interview, Trump went on to say that crime was down drastically in Venezuela because “they’ve taken their criminal elements… and they’ve moved them into the United States” – a remark pointed at the Biden administration’s border-security policies.
“(T)hey’re drug dealers, they’re criminals, They’re murderers, they’re rapists. Everything’s been moved into the United States,” Trump said without citing evidence.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Rami Ayyub and Howard Goller)