MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela downplays EU's adding it to list of high-risk countries

“An anachronistic bureaucracy, aged and disconnected from its people, pretends today to tutor Venezuela,” Gil's office said in a statement

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Yván Gil rejected his country's inclusion by the European Union (EU) in a list of “high-risk” nations, calling it a “ridiculous” attempt by a “decrepit European elite.”

Gil also underlined the EU's shortcomings in protecting its own interests, economy, and dignity, in matters such as money laundering and tax havens.

Venezuela also highlighted its growing economy, political stability, and resistance to external pressures like sanctions, asserting that the real issue for the EU was the Global South's refusal to submit to foreign influence. The EU's updated list also added countries like Algeria and Lebanon while removing others like Panama and Jamaica.

“What bothers the decrepit European elite is not the risk, but the truth: that there are countries of the South that no longer bow their heads, that do not accept tutelage, and that are not willing to enter the lists of the obedient,” Caracas said in a statement through Gil's office.

“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects its inclusion in the ridiculous list of ”high risk“ countries published by the European Union,” the document also noted.

“An anachronistic bureaucracy, aged and disconnected from its people, pretends today to tutor Venezuela, when it cannot even govern its own space coherently,” it added.

“They have banks laundering money in their own capitals, officials who look the other way, and tax havens operating with total impunity within their borders or under their protection,” Gil also mentioned.

“Venezuela, on the contrary, is a growing economy, with political stability and institutions that respond to its people, not to financial interests or lobbies. We have faced blockades, sanctions, isolation attempts, and here we are: stronger, firmer, and without double standards,” the Bolivarian regime insisted.