Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (left) talking with Ángel Prado (right) during a visit to the El Maizal commune on June 6, 2024. Photo: X/@madeleintlSUR.
The mayor of the Simón Planas municipality and leader of the El Maizal commune, Ángel Prado, has been appointed as the Venezuelan minister for communes. Prado will replace Guy Vernáez, who took office last February replacing Jorge Arreaza, who was appointed then as executive secretary of ALBA-TCP.
At the El Maizal commune this Thursday, June 6, located in the state of Lara, President Nicolás Maduro said that he needs “a leader who comes from the bases, with a successful project like the El Maizal Commune, at the head of the main construction battalion of the communes, of the communal councils, at the head of the Ministry of Popular Power for the Communes,” and that it is “for this reason, I have told Ángel Prado that I am going to appoint him as the new Minister of Popular Power for the Communes, starting today.”
#ÚltimoMinuto| presidente @NicolasMaduro nombró a Angel Prado como nuevo Ministro de las Comunas por Guy Vernáez.
Angel viene del corazón de la exitosa Comuna el Maizal donde se dieron importantes debates que arrojaron la modificación de la Ley de la Comuna que también fue… pic.twitter.com/MfUtlxC0IT
— Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) June 6, 2024
“I need to make changes now, because the people want radical changes, and in accordance with the Bolivarian Revolution, we will take the path of communal socialism, of territorial, productive socialism, with the communes, with the communal councils,” President Maduro emphasized during the announcement.
Since November 2021, Ángel Prado served as mayor of the Simón Planas municipality. Prado ran for this position outside the PSUV roster, and easily won the mayor’s office due to his consistent and uncompromising grassroots work in the communes.
After receiving the appointment, Prado thanked the head of state for the trust placed in him. He said that he comes from popular movements, and that he responds with loyalty to his role. “We are willing to build a majority, to build hegemony and collective strength from territorial socialism.”
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“This is a [big] responsibility, and we will together assume it with a lot of commitment,” Prado stated, addressing the president, “and believe me President, just as we strive in this Simón Planas municipality for a thousand battles, to win elections, this is what we are going to do in the Ministry for Communes.”
The El Maizal Commune is located between the states of Lara and Portuguesa, at the gateway to the Venezuelan plains. Founded in 2009, this rural commune has become an important political and economic force in the region, and a moral reference at the national and international level. El Maizal not only produces large quantities of corn and other products, but cattle and pigs are also raised there. However, the most important thing is that in the El Maizal Commune, new social relationships and new human beings are forged: people committed to the socialist project that Commander Hugo Chávez promoted, described by the book “Communal resistance against the imperialist blockade: Voices from the El Maizal Commune,” which can be read on the Anti-Blockade Observatory website.
(Alba Ciudad) by Ana Perdigón, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
