The former head of European diplomacy claims that the EU has become an American “protectorate” and compares Trump to Vladimir Putin

American President Donald Trump “wants a puppet government in Venezuela, like the one that Putin wanted to install in Ukraine and that he already has in Belarus”, said the former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Spanish Josep Borrell, in an interview with the EFE news agency on Tuesday, reports Agerpres.

“The ultimate goal is not to restore democracy in Venezuela, but to confiscate its natural resources (…) And if to do that he has to ally with the remnants of the Chavist or Maduro regime (no after the names of Venezuelan presidents Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro), you have no doubt that he will do it,” said Borrell, who is in Santiago to deliver a lecture entitled “Challenges of World Politics” at the University of Chile on Wednesday.

With more than 300 billion barrels, Venezuela “has the largest oil reserves in the world, larger than Saudi Arabia's, and they (not the Americans) are ready to exploit and appropriate them,” he added.

“It shouldn't surprise us. Putin doesn't care about international law, neither does Trump. And that's extremely serious. What kind of world are we heading towards?” he asked.

This world, in his opinion, resembles a “jungle” where the only rule is “the law of the strongest”.

Trump, whom the Spanish diplomat described as a “compulsive narcissist”, entrusted the transition after the US military's capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to Chavismo's “deputy” – current interim president Delcy Rodriguez.

Borrell says that, for now, Trump is “giving it to them [acesteia] the opportunity to be obedient and do what they want. It is truly imperial language: as long as you do what I want, you will stay there, but the day you don't, I will remove you as I have removed others.”

“In reality, the United States has never aimed to restore democracy in its military interventions. It has often been the other way around. I am here in Chile; what better place to remind yourself of what American interventions are like?” Borrell pointed out, referring to the support General Augusto Pinochet received for the 1973 coup.

Josep Borrell criticizes the EU's “softness” after the US intervention in Venezuela

Borrell also criticized what he called the “softness” with which the EU has treated US intervention in Venezuela and urged Brussels to stop seeing Washington as its “great ally”.

He stated that the US military actions in Caracas are “a strong wake-up call for Europe, which many European leaders, especially those in Brussels, refuse to hear”.

“The United States is ready to establish its own order in its spheres of influence, and to continue to think that it is our great ally is to deny reality,” Borrell said.

According to the Spanish diplomat, there are many European countries that believe that “the only solution is to try to improve” Trump, because “they fear that the United States will decide to stop protecting Ukraine.”

“It's a soft stance… Obviously it's a tactic to try to calm him down and prevent him from abandoning Ukraine, but Trump will abandon Ukraine or not, depending on what suits him,” he added.

The EU issued a statement on Sunday, almost a day and a half after the capture of Maduro, signed by 26 of the 27 member states (all except the Hungary of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Trump), in which it did not criticize Washington's actions and only called for “calm and restraint” and respect for international law, recalls the Spanish news agency EFE.

The former head of European diplomacy urges Europe to find solutions to defend itself

Borrell also said he understood the joy felt by millions of Venezuelans around the world after the fall of Maduro, but said “an illegitimate president supported by a corrupt terror apparatus” cannot be replaced by “an American proconsul in the style of the Roman Empire.”

“If tomorrow Trump decided to take Greenland by force – which wouldn't be too difficult, as he already has enough American bases there to lower the Danish flag and raise the American one without firing a shot – what would we Europeans say or what could we do?” he asked.

For the Spanish politician, the solution is for the European bloc to “find the means to ensure its own defense”.

“Europe lived comfortably under the protective umbrella of the United States; today it is a military protectorate, and that is not a good solution, because if the protector decides not to protect you, you are exposed,” he concluded.