Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro conducting a press conference with international journalists at Miraflores Palace, Caracas, on July 31, 2024. Photo: CNN.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—From the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, during a press conference with international journalists, the Venezuelan head of state, Nicolas Maduro, said that Venezuela is at peace after this Monday’s extremist violence promoted by the US-backed opposition. He also congratulated the police and military forces for their professional work in achieving stability and relative calm.
The Venezuelan president reiterated his call to opposition figureheads Edmundo González and María Corina Machado to assume their responsibility “in the face of so much abuse and violence in the country. This time there will be no forgiveness; there will be justice because what they wanted to do is kill people.”
“If you ask me my opinion as a citizen, I say that these people have to be behind bars, and there has to be justice in Venezuela,” said President Maduro, recalling that the National Constituent Assembly pardoned many of those arrested for violent actions during the guarimbas (riots) that took place in 2014 and 2017.
President Maduro commented that behind all the violent actions reported on Monday, July 30, there was “a lot of money and drugs,” and he noted that the extreme right coordinated all the violent groups with a comprehensive plan carried out by the US-backed opposition so that the criminal gangs could destabilize Venezuela’s institutions. “But that won’t happen here,” added the president.
Behind these actions are wealthy and powerful political figures, capitalists, and corporations, suggested President Maduro, such as Elon Musk and fascists including Argentina’s President Javier Milei; El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele; billionaire and president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa; former presidents of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque; and the DC-based media outlet Vox.
“The United States is involved and has never fulfilled any of its agreements,” he added.
The head of state noted that most of these criminals have already been captured. “As for the remainder, rest assured that we will find them,” stated the president during the press conference. “If the [US] empire wants to advance its criminal plan, we will be here to defend our people.” President Maduro presented several videos to the international journalists showing some of the terrorist actions carried out in Venezuela, particularly on Monday, the day after his electoral victory.
#EnVivo 📹 | Rueda de Prensa Internacional desde el Palacio de Miraflores https://t.co/pukjGf6XRD
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) July 31, 2024
Rerun elections
In recent hours, Venezuela’s US-backed opposition has been demanding a “rerun” of the elections. Answering a question on this topic from Gabriela Gonzales of Colombian news radio network W Radio, President Maduro make it clear that the idea itself says little about the opposition victory claims. “If you win a domino match, a few seconds later you can not cry to redo the match. If you won, you won,” commented the Venezuelan president.
Maduro noted that opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa has been promoting the campaign for an electoral rerun and characterized it as a strategy to attempt to destabilize the country and its institutions. Similarly, analysts have wondered why the Venezuelan far-right opposition might be demanding new elections if they allegedly won the presidential elections.
“You will have to go to the Supreme Court and present all the electoral minutes that you claim you have to probe your victory; we have the 100% of the minutes” said Maduro, in reference to the initiative he requested earlier, on Wednesday, to protect the election-related data in the wake of cyberattacks carried out since Sunday.
President Petro
Maduro reported he held a telephone conversation with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, regarding the terrorist acts carried out last Monday and recent comments made by the Colombian president. “I have a good level of dialogue and respect for President Petro, and we silently helped him to make peace in Colombia,” said President Maduro. “I never provide my opinion on Colombia’s internal affairs—never—nor do I become involved in negotiations, which I could do.” Venezuela has solid support from the major powers of the global majority, added the president, including China and Russia.
“We will talk to everyone, we will converse, we will dialogue,” said the President. However, he added, “we will never get involved in anyone’s business, not even with the United States when the events with Donald Trump and Joe Biden took place. We did not interfere.” President Maduro urged other nations not to interfere in Venezuela, although he noted that he appreciates all cooperation to promote peace.
“I told this to President Petro, whom I respect a lot,” said President Maduro. “He is one of the most intelligent men I have ever met in my life. Therefore, I respect his advice [and] his ideas.”
Carter Center
President Maduro said that the Carter Center report, released on Tuesday, which sent a 17-expert observation mission for the presidential elections, had already been written a month ago and that what was missing—he said—was the “spice” that was added after the release of a first partial bulletin with results by the Venezuelan electoral authorities.
“Everyone who came from the Carter Center to Venezuela brought the report already written,” said President Maduro. “We have had it for a month. We had the Carter Center report already written… Jimmy Carter is no longer the person who runs it, it only bears his name, unfortunately. There are two Carter Centers, one when it was led by former President Jimmy Carter and the current one, in the hands of USAID.”
In its report, the Carter Center stated that it could not “verify or corroborate the results of the election declared by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and the electoral authority’s failure to announce disaggregated results by polling station constitutes a serious breach of electoral principles,” without mentioning the hacking attack against the CNE or that the Venezuelan electoral framework assigns 30 days for the CNE to publish the electoral data.
Additionally, the Carter Center claimed that “Venezuela’s electoral process did not meet international standards of electoral integrity,” without providing a solid argumentation or mentioning that the process was witnessed by approximately 900 international and national observers, the vast majority of whom have already announced that the process was conducted in a very professional manner. These included other electoral observers from the United States. Many of these noted the superiority of Venezuela’s electoral system to that of the US.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SL
