Venezuelan far-right politician María Corina Machado being video recorded by Venezuelan law enforcement agents as evidence that she was released safely after being stopped for speeding. Photo: Con el Mazo Dando.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—In the afternoon of this Thursday, January 9, after a failed demonstration in the east of Caracas, María Corina Machado once again made false claims against the government of Venezuela in a continuation of her widely mocked fake news campaign.
The first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, stated that the far-right opposition attempted to cover up the failure of its call for mobilization by excusing it with false claims that María Corina Machado had somehow been arrested, despite the fact she was neither in police custody, nor had any calls for her arrest been made, reported Últimas Noticias.
“It was very, very, very sparse,” Cabello noted about the failed demonstration, “very few people were there because many of those who were in the opposition left when they got tired of smokescreens and the fact they have been led from one deception to another.”
At one of the focal points of a successful Chavista mobilization at the Plaza José Martí, near Chacaíto, Caracas, Cabello stated that if the order to arrest María Corina Machado had actually been given, it would have been carried out. “I guarantee you that if the decision was to arrest her, she would have already been arrested.”
Cabello said that “her plan was to tell the world that she had been captured to see what she could get or what it could generate. And it did not generate anything, and that is why she went out with her tail between her legs recording a video later saying that she was okay, that she had only lost her blue purse.”
“Enough of the lies against the country, against our people,” he continued, explaining that this latest step in her fake news campaign reveals just how bad things are for them. “This country wants to live in peace and tranquility, I wish they understood that. Unfortunately, the interests backing them are very powerful, it is the interest of imperialism, and they do what they are told to.”
The socialist leader said that “it is they [the far-right opposition] who generate violence, they integrate violence into every activity they carry out, and today they were even threatening their own people,” he added, in reference to the threats of snipers allegedly set up by the opposition leadership to attack its own supporters and later blame the government.
This is not the first time that Machado has spread fake news to try to manipulate public opinion and create a stir when she fails to achieve her objectives or to mobilize the streets. Several years ago, during the government of Comandante Hugo Chávez, she was caught calling her mother to let her know that they were about to give statements to the press claiming they were attacked by gunshots in the 23 de Enero parish of Caracas.
More recently, during the 2024 presidential race, Machado launched a similar soap opera claiming that the SUVs she used to tour the country were vandalized while she was in the city of Barquisimeto. She called it an “attempt against her life,” but neglected to explain why the security cameras in nearby houses did not record who really carried out the “vandalization” or why a fenced neighborhood with security guards did not record or report the incident.
Venezuela wants to live in peace
Cabello stated that the people of Venezuela want to live in peace. “We are here, the revolutionary people and brothers of the Bolivarian struggle,” he said, “to support the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who will be sworn in on January 10, where the people elected him on July 28 with a popular and democratic victory.”
He added that the deployment of public security and police forces in the country is to strengthen peace and the sovereignty of the people against such attacks. “Today we went out and marched to recognize the people for the effort they have been making to preserve peace,” he said, speaking of the successful Chavista mobilization, in contrast to the failed far-right demonstration. “Peace is our greatest victory, and we will always hold it!”
Despite mainstream media condemnations of the so-called Maduro “dictatorship,” the scarce number of far-right supporters that took to the streets of Caracas and Valencia on Thursday to demonstrate against the government did not suffer any kind of intimidation or threats, and it ended peacefully.
Foreign Minister Gil
“Another fiasco of the Venezuelan far right, another buffoonery and global ridicule of international fascism,” wrote Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil in a social media post following the fake news about the alleged arrest of Machado.
“Mrs. María Corina Machado attempted a false flag operation, backed by the right-wing and by international fascism, which immediately began to lie in support as usual,” the foreign minister wrote, noting that those extremist governments and international figures “only indicate the virulence of the reaction and complicity among those who do not accept that the opposition is a complete failure, and act, as always, in making a complete fool of themselves.”
“Mrs. Machado has several pending legal cases in Venezuela, for which she will have to answer,” Gil warned. “However, the Bolivarian Government’s actions will always be in accordance with the rule of law.”
Machado contradicts herself
Later in the afternoon, Machado published a post on social media contradicting statements made by her own political organization Vente Venezuela and former candidate Edmundo González himself, who spread false information earlier that she was “kidnapped” or arrested by the so-called “dictatorship” in a police raid that allegedly included shootings.
Whispering, and hidden under a hood, Machado put up a new story claiming that she is fine, safe, and free. She said that when she left the rally where she gathered dozens of people, she was followed and she had simply lost a blue purse after an alleged chase. “I am fine now, safe,” she said.
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Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez advised Mrs. Machado to “find a job and get to work before madness consumes her,” in reference to the fake news campaign that was created to try to hide the failure of the Venezuelan far-right extremist demonstration.
Con el Mazo Dando
Later, on Thursday night, during the broadcast of his program Con el Mazo Dando, Diosdado Cabello explained that what might have really happened is that Machado’s biker entourage ran out of control at maximum speed near the Altamira Bridge, and was stopped by Bolivarian National Police and National Guard agents. After realizing it was Machado, they decided to take a photo of her (pictured in the title of this article) to have it as evidence that nothing really happened to her, and that she was leaving in good health.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/AU
