Venezuela claims US coup bid
‘Armed commandos arrested’
ADAY before opposition leaders convened more protests in Caracas calling for the ouster of Venezuela’s government, the country’s leader has accused the US of working with right-wing leaders towards a coup.
“The US government, the State Department, has given the green light, the approval for a coup process to intervene in Venezuela,” President Nicolas Maduro said, speaking from the Miraflores Palace.
Maduro said that security forces had arrested an “armed commando group sent by the opposition in order to attack the mobilisation called by the right wing for yesterday to generate violence and deaths in the country”.
An investigation has been opened to determine the identities of those behind the plan.
According to the Venezuelan leader, who also pointed to a US State Department statement issued on Tuesday night warning of an “international response” should “peaceful protests” face repression, the US government wrote up a coup scenario for opposition leader Julio Borges.
The “scenario” Maduro referred to consists of generating violence and death before blaming the Venezuelan government for allegedly violently attacking political opponents.
Then the plot leaders would demand immediate elections, before Maduro’s official end of term in 2019.
“No more coups in Venezuela, no more plots,” said Maduro, adding that he had activated a public security plan to maintain order.
He also called on government supporters to take to the streets in the defence of the 18-year Bolivarian Revolution.
The allegations come after weeks of opposition-led anti-government demonstrations calling for the ouster of the country’s Supreme Court judges, as well as Maduro.
According to reports, among those killed as a result of the violence were a 13-year-old boy who was shot yesterday when opposition protesters entered a social housing complex, and an 83-year-old woman who was not able to receive medical attention due to opposition roadblocks.
Opposition protesters had vandalised various areas in Caracas in recent days, causing economic damage estimated at around 50 billion bolivars (R60bn), Maduro announced on Sunday.
A high school, a community health centre, various subsidised food markets and several government ministries have also reportedly been severely affected.
The opposition MUD alliance called for a “Mega March” protest in Caracas yesterday and estimated a large turnout, with promotions flooding social media. Officials feared that there could be violence should they attempt to redirect marches to areas where pro-government demonstrators would be gathered.
Supporters of Venezuela’s left-wing government were set to mobilise yesterday in defence of the Bolivarian Revolution, as opposition marchers gathered.
“We are going to march, those who stand firm in the struggle for the sovereignty of the nation,” said Tania Diaz, a lawmaker for the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV.
The mobilisations also fall on Venezuela’s Independence Day commemorations, marking the start of the independence movements led by Simon Bolivar.
PSUV Vice-President Diosdado Cabello said the presence of government supporters in the street would act to “dissuade the sort of violence that violent groups look to generate”.
“With organisation and conscience of the mobilised people, we must defend the homeland and the people of Bolivar and Chavez – that is what is at stake.”