Maduro addresses May Day mobilization: Venezuela Roundup

maduro mayday

Maduro addressed people on May 1, the International Workers Day| Photo: teleSUR

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced a “day of dialogue” to be held over the weekend, in an effort to fix some of the mistakes his government has made “since the Revolution.”

Addressing people in a huge May Day mobilization in Caracas, the Venezuelan president accused the U.S.-backed opposition politician Juan Guaido of trying to trigger a civil war in Venezuela.

“The Venezuelan coup leaders not only deceived themselves, but also deceived US imperialists, saying that I was going to leave the country,” Maduro said, referring to statements from Washington that he was about to flee to Cuba.

“What would have happened if we had confronted those coup plotters? A massacre among Venezuelans, we would have killed ourselves and in Washington they would have celebrated,” he said.

If Guaido, the self-proclaimed “interim president,” really wants to reach the Miraflores Palace, all he has to do is win an election, said Maduro.

He called on his supporters to make proposals to “rectify mistakes” that have been made by the government, and to address the US-imposed sanctions.

“We are going to a great day of change, of rectification, of revolutionary renewal. I am counting on you!” Maduro told the crowd.

The way to settle differences is “constitutionality and respect,” he said.

It was unclear whether his offer of dialogue extended to Guaido and the coup-plotters, however, as the president said he would “name the traitors” in the coming days.

© Twitter / Prensa Presidencial

During the speech, Maduro also appealed to the people of Venezuela not to allow the “fracturing” of the revolutionary ideology and the “just cause” he is defending.

Never surrender

“I will never betray the people of Venezuela, I will never surrender to imperialism,” he said.

The president asserted that the Venezuelan opposition, backed by the United States, has never understood that the majority of Venezuelan people and an unbreakable civic-military union willing to defend the country.

He said, the United States government was responsible for leading the attempted coup on April 30.

He demanded an investigation against that country.

“John Bolton led yesterday’s coup, I’m sure of that,” the president said, referring to the U.S. National Security Advisor.

He also stressed that the coup conspiracy was defeated because the conscience of the Venezuelan people stood bold before the criminal coup.

“We have just defeated another plot from the right,” he said.

He reminded the assembled people that coups have been attempted since 2002 during the term of President Hugo Chavez and have always been defeated.

“They have not or will not be able to succeed with us under any circumstances,” he said.

“They cannot understand the absolute will to defend this Revolution, our Bolivarian Constitution, our national independence and the right of the people to build their future,” said the Venezuelan head of state.

People in front of Miraflores Palace after the May 1st march. Photo: (Katrina Kozarek; Venezuelanalysis

Thousands rally for May Day

Hundreds of thousands of the working people from different sectors of the economy, and other sections of the Venezuelan people mobilized them on the streets of Caracas Wednesday to celebrate International Workers’ Day in honor of the workforce, which has seen 20 years of the Bolivarian Revolution.

“The revolutionary forces will move in a great caravan of vehicles and motorcycles, accompanied by people on foot,” said member of the National Constituent Assembly Dario Vivas.

People in thousands began to gather on Caracas streets in the morning in support of President Maduro and his government.

The forces opposed to the Bolivarian political process also assembled in wealthier parts of the capital city.

This comes a day after Guaido led a coup attempt against the government of Maduro.

Earlier, on Tuesday, in an address telecast Maduro said: “Tomorrow, the first of May, we will have a large, millions-strong march of the working class. “We have been confronting different types of aggression and attempted coups never before seen in our history.”

 

Countrywide mobilization

“Today the Venezuelan working class is mobilizing throughout the country to celebrate its day and defend its achievements, with a great march that will say NO to the coups and NOT to the Yankee interference. Nerves of steel, calm and sanity! Long live the workers of the fatherland!” Maduro tweeted.

Dario Vivas, Head of Mobilization and Events of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), reported: The demonstrations moved as a large caravan of vehicles and motorcycles, accompanied by people on foot starting from the El Valle Highway to the height of the Longaray Distributor in Caracas, and then go to the center of the capital city.

“It is important that each vehicle show the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution and also that the workers express that with each grain of sand they promote the development of the country,” he said.

Elsewhere in Latin America, millions took to the streets on Wednesday to protest new sanctions imposed on Cuba by the U.S. in efforts to topple the government of socialist ally Venezuela.

The annual marches across the country, marking International Workers Day, provided the first opportunity to publicly protest a U.S. offensive against socialism in the region declared by John Bolton late last year.

Guaido faced a key test of support Wednesday after calling for the “largest march” in Venezuela’s history to try to unseat President Maduro.

The U.S.-backed politician Tuesday appeared outside an air force base with dozens of uniformed persons, and urged the members of the armed forces to support to oust Maduro. But there were no concrete signs of defection from the leadership of the armed forces or from the large majority of the army.

Following his move against the government, protests took place across the capital Caracas and several clashes took place, in which injuries were reported. The U.S. government immediately supported the coup attempt, while Mexico, Cuba, and Russia rejected the attempted coup and an escalation of violence, and Spain was quick to call for restraint and avoiding bloodshed.

At the same time, Guaido announced there would be a strike by public sector employees beginning on Thursday as a continuation of what he calls the final phase of the operation ‘Liberation.’

Glossing over his failure to convince the military to defect on Tuesday, Guaido tweeted, Public servants will join. We will support them in increasing strikes which will begin tomorrow and will continue until a general strike takes place.

You should have power in order to call a strike,” National Constituent Assembly leader Diosdado Cabello remarked.

Scattered demonstrations and clashes between opposition supporters and police continued around Caracas on Wednesday, but with far less intensity than Tuesday’s abortive coup.

Guaido’s “Operation Liberty” fizzled away within a few hours, with Guaido’s mentor Leopoldo Lopez took shelter in an ambassador’s residence while about two dozen uniformed armed persons took shelter in the embassy of Brazil.

Bolton’s discovery: “Maduro in a bunker”

US national security adviser John Bolton has condemned Venezuelan President Maduro for “hiding in a military bunker” although Maduro was addressing people, who joined in mobilization in support of Maduro in the Caracas streets.

Maduro “hides in a military bunker somewhere, surrounded by his Cuban overseers and corrupt cronies,” Bolton sneered in a tweet.

The U.S. high-level official denounced the Venezuelan leader as a “cowardly autocrat” while praising opposition frontman Guaido as a “brave leader.”

Unfortunately, for Bolton, Twitter was paying attention, and someone pointed him to a live feed of Maduro speaking in front of a huge assembly of people.

Bolton described: Guaido, from atop a vehicle, bravely lead[ing] the Venezuelan people through the streets.

In reality, the U.S.-backed Venezuelan politician looked a bit less impressive while he put a car’s distance between himself and the Venezuelan people; and a few minutes later Guaido tried to mingle with his supporters around him.

The U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo, too, has mocked Maduro for hiding in the aftermath of Guaido’s failed coup attempt joking, ‘Nerves of Steel’ hasn’t shown himself very much today! to a Fox News host after Maduro boasted of his continued support from the military.

Just minutes earlier, Pompeo disclosed in the same interview that Maduro had been on the brink of fleeing to Cuba and was only held back by Russian interference.

Maduro himself had marveled at the lack of seriousnessof Pompeo’s airplane on the tarmac narrative.

By the time Pompeo appeared on Fox, he had added a wrinkle to the story, darkly hinting that the US would no longer guarantee Maduro’s safety even if he were to leave Venezuela. Previously, the Trump team had hyped up promises of amnesty for all Venezuelan military who surrender.

The U.S. seems to be hammering the anti-Maduro propaganda extra-hard after Guaido’s gamble with politics fell flat on Tuesday.

Since the failure, Bolton, Pompeo, and other members of the interventionist clique have accordingly stepped up threats of military intervention in Venezuela.

Proposal to deploy mercenaries

An earlier report said: Erik Prince, the founder of the Blackwater private security contractor and a supporter of US President Trump, has offered to deploy an army of mercenaries to help oust Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Reuters reported, citing four sources with knowledge of the matter.

Imperialist master plan to destroy Bolivarian Venezuela

Argentine intellectual Stella Calloni revealed imperialism’s Venezuela-subversion project, which includes harassing and ridiculing Venezuelan President Maduro to cast him as incompetent.

Stella Calloni made the exposure on the basis of the U.S. Southern Command “Plan to overthrow the Venezuelan dictatorship: Masterstroke”. Granma, official voice of the Communist Party of Cuba central committee published it on April 30, 2019. Following is the media plan of the imperialist subversion project:

  • Increase within the country, via local and international media, the dissemination of messages designed and based on testimony and publications originating in the country, making use of all possible capacity, including social media.
  • “Justifying and assuring through violent means the international backup to the deposal of the dictatorship, displaying an extensive dissemination, inside the country and to the entire world, through all open means and the capacities of the psychological war of the U.S. Army.
  • Back up and “strengthen” the image of the OAS, as a multilateral institution to resolve regional problems.
  • Promote the request of a dispatch of a UNO military force for the imposition of peace, once Nicolas Maduro’s corrupt dictatorship is defeated.

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