Army rejects opposition calls, reaffirms ‘absolute loyalty’ to Nicolas Maduro

“We firmly reject the desperate and seditious proposals” which “seek to undermine our unity”declared, Tuesday, August 6, in a statement the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino, reaffirming a “absolute loyalty to citizen Nicolas Maduro Moros (…), legitimately re-elected by the popular power”.

The day after the presidential election of July 28, General Vladimir Padrino had already reaffirmed on behalf of the army “[sa] absolute loyalty” to the head of state. The opposition, which claims victory, had called on Monday the army, pillar of power, to fall into line “on the side of the people” in the crisis opposing him to Nicolas Maduro, proclaimed winner by the National Electoral Council, immediately attracting criminal prosecution from the public prosecutor’s office.

“We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to side with the people and their own families.”wrote in a joint statement presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who on Tuesday denounced a “campaign of terror” in the country. The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office reacted immediately by opening a criminal investigation against the two leaders, in particular for “usurpation of functions, dissemination of false information, incitement to disobedience of the laws, incitement to insurrection, criminal association”.