Nicolás Maduro has responded to Donald Trump's threats by stating that Venezuela is prepared to 'break the teeth' of the North American empire if necessary. The speech took place in Caracas after a farmers' march, coinciding with the Nobel Peace Prize award to María Corina Machado in Oslo. Tensions rise with the US military deployment in the Caribbean and the seizure of a Venezuelan tanker.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro delivered a speech on December 10, 2025, in Caracas, following a march of farmers and Chavista supporters, including public workers, militiamen, and evangelical church members. In it, he directly threatened the United States in response to the recent military deployment in the Caribbean, the largest in over half a century, justified by Washington as a measure against drug trafficking. 'We are prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire,' Maduro declared. He added: 'The same productive hands from the Venezuelan countryside are the ones that grab the rifles, tanks, and missiles to defend this sacred land from any aggressor empire. We fight for peace, as Bolívar said'.
Hours earlier, the US Army seized a tanker off the Venezuelan coast, an action announced by Donald Trump: 'We just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela. A big tanker, very big, the biggest ever seen.' According to Bloomberg, it was a judicial action against a flagless vessel that had docked in Venezuela. Caracas labeled this a threat, and Maduro highlighted a 'powerful public opinion movement in the world rejecting the US military aggression against Venezuela and the Caribbean'.
The event coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, awarded to opposition leader María Corina Machado, who did not attend and whose award was collected by her daughter. At the gala, singer Danny Ocean performed 'Alma llanera', pianist Gabriela Montero 'Querencia', and the anthem 'Gloria al Bravo Pueblo'. Maduro, meanwhile, demanded an end to the 'illegal and brutal interventionism' of the US, citing past invasions: 'No more Vietnam, no more Somalia, no more Iraq, no more Afghanistan, no more Libya'.
Maduro insulted Machado, calling her a 'sayona fascist, criminal, Nazi-fascist, and murderer', and Argentine President Javier Milei and Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino as 'ridiculous and parasites'. He recalled last year's electoral fraud, where he imposed results in his favor despite the opposition victory of Edmundo González Urrutia, with seven million votes against his three million, despite state control.
