Venezuela’s FANB Condemns Promotion of Violence by Edmundo González
Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino condemned the recent message of the former far-right presidential candidate Edmundo González, who seeks to generate a climate of violence in the country amid President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration scheduled for this Friday, January 10. Padrino noted that the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) is a professional institution that is committed to the defense of the country’s sovereignty and people’s will.
In a statement released this Monday, January 6, the top military commander said that “we have observed with profound indignation a video published last night, January 5, by the coward Edmundo González addressing the FANB in a shameless and insolent manner with absurd and incoherent statements that demonstrate not only ignorance regarding the military institution but also an exacerbated desperation in the face of the imminent and resounding failure of his coup plans.”
Padrino added that the ridiculous video was broadcast precisely at the time of González’s arrival in the USA, whose government is the sponsor and manipulator of the Venezuelan far-right, which serves as a subterfuge to hide their cowardice and weakness, since they do not have the people’s support and, even less, the respect of the military which they have repeatedly offended and scorned.
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Minister Padrino pointed out that “with the cynicism that characterizes them, with inappropriate words and a circus-like appearance, they refer to peace and stability for Venezuelans when they have systematically requested economic sanctions and all kinds of unilateral coercive measures which have caused so much harm to the Venezuelan people, including to military personnel and their families, who have been the first and most numerous victims of the violence that they have been brewing for years as part of their neofascist actions to destabilize the legitimate government of the country and undermine the tranquility of their own fellow citizens.”
For this reason, the FANB categorically and vehemently rejects this clownish and buffoonish act of despicable politicking, which will not have the slightest impact on the robust patriotic conscience of the FANB. The military, noted Padrino, in perfect civilian–military–police fusion, will staunchly defend the Constitution and the laws of the nation, as well as its freedom, sovereignty, and independence.
In the aforementioned video, the former presidential candidate González issued a direct call to the FANB to, according to him, respect the popular will and guarantee than on January 10, he would be inaugurated as the “legitimate” president of Venezuela despite Venezuelan electoral authorities announcing President Nicolas Maduro as the winner of the July 28 presidential election, a decision that was later ratified by the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
The video itself constitutes new evidence of the attempted destabilization of Venezuela by the opposition, as well as further evidence of González’s disregard of Venezuelan institutions and legal framework. The relatively unknown far-right elderly politician has been touring right-wing-ruled countries in Latin America. In Argentina, a recent video showed that González was barely capable of walking due to his age.
Featured image: Poster in the Simón Bolívar International Airport with a photo of far-right former presidential candidate Edmundo González offering a US $100,000 bounty. The poster also lists the crimes that González has been charged with by the Public Ministry. Photo: Daily Motion/@ElMundo.
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
