VLADIMIR Padrino López, the Venezuelan Defence Minister, has denounced what he has called a new US-backed attempt to destabilise the country before the Presidential election at the end of July.
Lopez said that there isn’t major unrest in the country and claims about problems in Venezuela are untrue and come from right wing anti-government forces inside Venezuela and expatriates living in the US and Colombia .
Lopez warned: ‘As we approach 28th July, violent attempts to destroy the government of Venezuela will increase.
‘This is because those doing so represent the imperialist interests of the United States who oppose the Bolivarian revolution which took place in Venezuela.
‘Thanks to President Nicolás Maduro, and the maturity of the Venezuelan people, as well as the commitment of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), we have been able to keep the country calm.’
On Saturday, 30th March, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil warned the population about an alleged armed offensive, devised by right wing forces in Venezuela to attack and violate national sovereignty, through a ‘libertarian movement’ formed by mercenaries linked to Operation Gideon and led from the United States.
Gil said: ‘The attempt by the pro-US forces in Venezuela cause divisions and are an attempt to get hold of the oil and other raw materials in the country, and will not help the Venezuelan people in any way.
‘No further explanation is needed: Venezuela’s far-right believes in neither democracy nor elections.’
Right wing politician Mario Iván Carratú Molina, who is currently in the United States, is trying to organise a ‘libertarian movement’ in Venezuela.
The secretary general of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), Jorge Arreaza, also said that anti-government protests in Venezuela are being organised from the US and Colombia.
Last Thursday, Communication Minister Freddy Ñañez said that there is a concerted media campaign to trivialise the most recent assassination attempt on Maduro which occurred in Venezuela last month.
On 25th March, the authorities apprehended two men in Caracas, where Maduro was registering his candidacy for the July presidential elections.
The men were found with guns on them which they would have used to shoot Maduro.
In the investigations following last Monday’s events, Attorney General Tarek William Saab determined that the detainees were linked to ‘Vente Venezuela’, a far-right organisation that has been associated with previous coup attempts .
Through a message on social media, the Communication Minister also responded to statements from right wing journalist Sebastiana Barraez which he said were an attempt to create unrest and over throw the government.
Barraez was involved in a previous coup attempt operation called ‘White Bracelet’.
Saab added: ‘It is a desperate manoeuvre in the foreign media to try to both stir unrest and make it look like the government are unpopular when they are backed by the majority of the population.
‘This clearly demonstrates that both conspiracies are linked and are part of a multi-faceted plan.
‘People spreading absurd narratives about the detainees do not act innocently.
‘They are playing a role in covering up a serious crime against the constitutional order.
‘Barraez is attempting to promote a narrative based on lies aimed at manipulating public opinion, and obstructing investigations into movements against the government.’
The Communications Ministry said in a statement that the evidence presented by Attorney General Saab clearly demonstrates Barraez’s criminal attitude.
The statement said: ‘If we review the irrefutable evidence presented by Saab, we will understand why it took two days to construct a laughable yet dangerous fake news story about protests in Caracas which did not happen.
‘What is striking is her fervent and crude campaign to whitewash Vente Venezuela in a proven assassination operation in which the hitmen have been convicted and have confessed.’
The Venezuelan ministry also explained that terrorist actions operate not only in the physical realm but also in the virtual sphere, as far-right media ‘distract, distort, and lie in favour of the operation.’
- Last Saturday in Paraguay, relatives and friends mourned the death of Martín Almada, the Human Rights advocate.
Almada, a lawyer, activist and author who wrote the book ‘Archives of Terror’ about the dictatorship in Paraguay which was in power from 1954 until 1989, had been arrested and tortured on 26 November 1974 by the military regime of General Alfredo Stroessner.
Almada died at the age of 87, after a long battle with a disease that kept him in hospital.
Paraguay president Santiago Peña said: ‘I would like to express my eternal gratitude for Martín Almada, teacher and freedom fighter’.
Almada was arrested in 1954 and served time in prison until he was released in 1977, when he went into exile in Panama and later to Paris, where he worked for Unesco.
He returned to his country in 1989, after the fall of the Stroessner dictatorship.
Almada wrote about police repression in the country and exposed the ‘Condor Plan’, which involved several South American dictatorships between 1970 and 1980.
He documented the crimes of right-wing military governments, many of whom were formed with the help of the United States’ CIA.
His biographer and writer, Pablo Daniel Magee, said that Almada’s work is studied in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Colombia, Portugal, Argentina and Chile, among other countries.
Magee said: ‘Martín Almada died but his struggle remains intact and the resolution with which we will carry forward the cause of human rights is stronger than ever.
‘It is the proof that there is no obstacle that can stop the human being when he has a conviction.
‘Almada’s greatest legacy was his book the ‘Archives of Terror’.
- Former president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, has condemned ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who last year eliminated the Commission of Dead and Disappeared, an institution that had been investigating the crimes of the 1964-1985 military dictatorships since 1995.
Rouseff drew parallels to a coup attempt that Bolsanoro organised in January of last year after he lost the Presidential elections to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022.
Rousseff, who was herself a victim of torture during the military dictatorship (1964-1985), defended the importance of remembering the coup d’état of 1964, of which happened 60 years ago on Monday.
She said: ‘Maintaining the memory and the historical truth about the military coup that occurred in Brazil 60 years ago is crucial to ensure that the tragedy does not recur, as almost happened recently on 8th January, 2023.
‘History does not erase the signs of betrayal of democracy or clean from the national conscience the acts of perversity of those who exiled and stained the Brazilian life with blood, torture and death for 21 years.
‘Nor does it rescue those who supported the attack on institutions, democracy and the ideals of a more just and less unequal society.
‘Dictatorship never again!’
Relatives of victims of the dictatorship and human rights associations are planning to march in the city of São Paulo this Sunday from a former torture centre to the Ibirapuera Park, to ‘not forget’ the pain caused by the dictatorship.
Victims of the 1964 coup are demanding the ‘demilitarisation of the police’ and the creation of mechanisms against torture, and the reissue and publication of history textbooks from the victims’ perspective.
Meanwhile in Peru, police have raided President Dina Boluarte’s home as part of a corruption inquiry dubbed ‘Rolexgate’.
Authorities were searching for more than a dozen Rolex watches President Boluarte had allegedly not declared.
The investigation began after a news report drew attention to luxury watches she wore at public events, dating from when she took office in December 2022.
Peru’s government described the raid on Saturday as ‘disproportionate and unconstitutional’.
Peruvian Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen said: ‘The political noise that is being made is serious, affecting investments and the entire country.’
The government comptroller announced earlier this month it would review Boluarte’s asset declarations from the past two years.
Speaking last week, Boluarte insisted she entered government ‘with clean hands’ and that she would ‘leave it with clean hands’.
