The Eternal Coup

Yesterday marked the 15^th anniversary of the first referendum called for by President Chávez. In 25 April, 1999 Venezuelans were asked whether they accepted or not to summon a National Constitutive Assembly to write a new constitution for the country. 87.75% of voters responded affirmatively.

President Maduro commemorated the events with a national radio and television cadena broadcast form the Caracas 23 de Enero parish.

Maduro explained that the referendum started a cycle of elections that favored the government. Because of that, the oligarchy began at least since 2001, a rightist psychological war and a political campaign against the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution. This campaign was, according to Maduro “the basis of hatred and intolerance, which are now [also] the basis of the fascism of the Venezuelan ultra-right.”

Maduro also warned that the coup d’état against Chávez of April 2002 “has not ceased,” he therefore asked his own followers, and the opposition, to “work in order to close the coup cycle of the Venezuelan right.” He specifically linked the 2002 coup with recent opposition protests: “The coup that violently began in April 11 [2002] and has not ceased, and the guarimba [street barricades] of the right continues despite the dialogue [called] by the Government.”

Image form AVN