Change the Constitution to defeat conspiracy

In a televised interview the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, explained journalist José Vicente Rangel how a coup d’état is preceded by a conspiracy period: “The conspiracy is a phase previous to the coup. The Venezuelan opposition, and this is something they themselves have admitted, are interested in the economic and security instability of the country, but are incapable of generating their own project-"

According to Cabello the conspiracy is following a well-established plot. First the opposition takes advantage of criminal events, such as the murder of the Venezuelan actress Mónica Spear, on January 6, and “from that moment on starts the [violence] surge,” this was followed by the appeal by opposition leaders on January 23 for street protests, and then the beginning of the violent protests on February 12.

The next phase of the plot includes terrorist acts and the “selective murder” of chavista leaders. Cabello again repeated the official theory that the murder of Eliécer Otaiza was an “uncommon murder in this country (…), when one observes [other] murder cases, [other] profiles, one finds something odd [with the Otaiza case], and therefore there is the fear that the opposition is now in this phase [of selective murders.]”

Surprisingly Cabello also claimed that the opposition has links with military sectors, which according to him include officers of the Air Force and the National Guard, who form part of a group called Front for the Moral Reserve of the Guard and that was already investigated in 2002.

After the interview José Vicente Rangel argued that, given the revelations made by Cabello, it has now become necessary to “reinforce the defense capabilities of the State against the subversion by the opposition.”

In order to do this Rangel suggested that it may be necessary to reform the Constitution, or to create a special law to deal with subversive action “such as those executed [by the opposition] during the months of February, March, and April, and to face the preparation of the new offensive, which is already under way.”