Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López at the Congress of the New Epoch 2024, Caracas, January 18, 2024. Photo: X/@NicolasMaduro.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, urged the people to be attentive and not to fall into the provocations of the extreme right in order to preserve peace. “Nobody should be complacent, we are at peace but we must take care to preserve it,” he said.
“The plan of the extreme right is to start a violent coup, they have no other plan,” President Maduro said on Thursday, January 18, referring to the four assassination plots that were foiled in 2023. The president revealed these plots last Monday, January 15, during his annual address to the nation.
On Thursday, during his participation in the Congress of the New Epoch, held at the Aquiles Nazoa Cultural Center in Caracas, President Maduro stated that coup plots are being financed with the aim of threatening the peace of Venezuela. In this regard, he warned the far-right “not to awaken the Bolivarian fury.”
“The CIA and the DEA bases in Colombia are preparing violent coup and anti-constitutional actions against Venezuela,” he said. “I do not think that Biden is involved, but the CIA and the DEA, agencies that operate independently, criminal entities, and other groups in Colombia, imagine the degree of corruption.”
President Maduro revealed that all the journalists of the Miami-based news channel IVC Networks were aware of the assassination and assault plan by a group of mercenaries brought from abroad, in association with a group of Venezuelan military personnel of the 21st Brigade of San Cristóbal (Táchira state bordering Colombia).
He stated that the first such plot, “which they even have in writing,” was to assassinate the governor of Táchira state, Freddy Bernal, and to enter Caracas like the US troops entered Baghdad. “They think they are alone in the ring,” he added.
Bolivarian Fury Plan
President Maduro instructed the military high command to activate the Bolivarian Fury Plan in all the states of the country to respond to any coup attempt and aggression.
“The civic-military-police union, through the Bolivarian Fury Plan, will be activated in every corner of Venezuela in order to be ready to face any situation that attempts to endanger the peace of the Republic,” the president announced.
He further stated that within a few days the first vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, will announce a set of actions to be carried out together with the Union of Peace (UPAZ), to activate the Bolivarian Fury plan throughout the country. “It must be a civic-military-police plan to confront any attempted coup in whatever way it may appear,” he said.
The president instructed the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) to be alert in defense of the nation, “maximum vigilance, maximum unity and preparedness for any aggression against the Venezuelan Homeland.”
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People’s mobilization against conspiracies
President Maduro called for the mobilization of the people against any conspiracy that the extreme right is trying to implement to generate violence in the country.
President Maduro stressed that the Venezuelan family has the right to peace, work, and recovery, and added that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela (FANB), the police, and the People’s Power have a great responsibility to safeguard the stability of the Nation. “Only we can, and united we will, defeat any threat, and peace will triumph, for now and forever,” he emphasized.
The context
On Monday, January 15, President Maduro revealed that in 2023 a total of four coup plots, planned by the Venezuelan right wing in complicity with US agencies based in Colombia and Miami, were thwarted.
He stated that the conspiracies were detected in May, August, November, and December 2023, in which both Venezuelans and foreigners were involved.
He said that the destabilizing actions were planned from Miami and from Colombia. “The CIA and DEA offices in Colombia continue to act against Venezuela,” he warned.
He added that in the four plots, details of which will soon be revealed, the coup plotters had the objective of assassinating President Maduro, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino LĂłpez, and other political and administrative figures of Venezuela, and destroying peace.
He highlighted that one of the conspiracies was detected after former Caracas mayor and fugitive Antonio Ledezma made controversial statements claiming that “we have the military and they are going to act.” After Ledezma made that comment, an officer was apprehended who was to be in charge of carrying out the attack.
That officer revealed that high-ranking military officers in Táchira and Zulia states were bought off by the Venezuelan right wing, in complicity with agencies of other countries, to make an attempt against the life of President Maduro. Intelligence efforts were able to alert the authorities in time about the plot and thwart it.
The last conspiracy was to assault a military barracks on January 1, 2024, in Táchira, to be carried out by military deserters, mercenaries, and some bought off military personnel. The principal mission of the plot was to assassinate Freddy Bernal, governor of Táchira. President Maduro reported that a group of mercenaries brought from Colombia was in charge of capturing and assassinating Bernal. He added that all those responsible are in prison, they have confessed and have been convicted.
President Maduro praised the intelligence agencies and the loyalty of the FANB for their work in unveiling these assassination plots. “We must continue defeating the conspiracies in order to safeguard peace,” he said.
“Do not forget that the Bolivarian Fury Plan is active 24 hours a day. It will go into effect if any of their conspiracies materialize,” he warned.
(Últimas Noticias) by Carlos Eduardo Sánchez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
