Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores escorted by US DEA agents in New York, January 5, 2025. Photo: XNY/Star Max.
Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the son of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros, provided some details about the assault and invasion carried out by the US on January 3. The attack resulted in a massacre in which at least 100 people were killed, and the president, along with his wife, Cilia Flores, was abducted.
During the International Anti-Fascist Forum in solidarity with Venezuela held by video conference on Thursday, January 8, Maduro Guerra pointed out that the military invasion ordered by US President Donald Trump, in addition to violating all international and even US law, was a crime against humanity and turned Maduro and Flores into “prisoners of war” of an operation aimed at seizing Venezuela’s natural resources.
Maduro Guerra, who is a Venezuelan National Assembly deputy, added that to carry out the abduction of the president, US troops employed “over 150 aircraft” and “neutralized” Venezuelan air defense radars. “We were left blind,” he said, adding that the attack was “with an aircraft that emits an electromagnetic pulse that affects all defense systems.”
“It was impossible for Venezuelan planes to take off, and it is most likely that if we had taken off, they would have shot it down,” the parliamentarian recounted about the initial findings regarding the US military attack, which included bombings of strategic Venezuelan Armed Forces installations as well as other vital civilian infrastructure sites in the country. “The technology they used was impressive… I think there was a rehearsal of something here, and humanity needs to know about it,” he stated.
Among the sites attacked were the Venezuelan Social Security Institute (IVSS) medication warehouses for dialysis patients, the Mathematics Center of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), key power plants supplying electricity to Caracas and neighboring states, as well as residential buildings and homes.
In those attacks, “over 100 people died, both civilians and military personnel,” he said. The dead include “the 32 Cuban comrades” who were part of the security agreements between Cuba and Venezuela, and “heroic soldiers of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) who “died in combat, defending the president until their last breath.”
How was the presidential couple abducted?
Maduro Guerra stated that when the US assault troops arrived at the Venezuelan president’s residence, “the president was resting at home, not sleeping. I had the opportunity to go [to Maduro’s residence], and the slippers are still on the couch where the president was. He was drinking juice; it is still there, everything is there,” he added.
He speculated that the US soldiers “thought that the president had gone into a safe room. However, it was a wooden door, and they blew it open with explosives, and that is when we believe they wounded the first lady [Cilia Flores]. They came with a medical team and treated them. It seems that the order was to take them alive. At the scene, there were two other people close to the president whom the US troops left alive,” Maduro Guerra added, noting that the president walked out alongside Flores “with dignity.”
He announced that further details of the abduction will be revealed later, as the Investigation Commission presents its findings on this situation. He emphasized that the president’s absence cannot be declared in Venezuela because the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela does not address the situation of abduction of the president. Since the event is public and it is known that the president is alive, the reins of the country, for the time being, remain in the hands of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who is now functioning as acting president.
“What we are carrying out is the president’s plan. It is the path he left us,” Maduro Guerra declared. “Nicolás Maduro’s plan is what is governing Venezuela today, with Delcy [Rodríguez] at the helm, because she is the executive vice president whom he appointed, and we are united—one flesh, one heart, one mind—to face this situation.”
The National Assembly deputy added that from the very first moment of the assault and abduction of the president and first lady, Delcy Rodríguez, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, “have remained in daily contact, hour by hour and minute by minute.”
He reiterated that the ongoing talks with the US amid the aggression “are part of the plan approved by Nicolás Maduro,” despite Washington’s reluctance to speak with the president. “It was a personal matter. They did not want to talk to him; they refused.”
(RT)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
