The Fortune, one of five Iranian fuel tankers en route to Venezuela, entered Venezuelan waters  and proceeded with Venezuelan military escort. President Nicolás Maduro emphasised that his country and Iran had “the right to trade freely”, adding: “revolutionary peoples who will never kneel down before the North American empire”. The U.S. State Department contended that “Venezuelans need free and fair presidential elections leading to democracy and economic recovery, not Maduro’s expensive deals with another pariah state”.