Coup d’état and the creation of a new special brigade

Interior, Justice and Peace Minister, Miguel Rodriguez Torres has revealed that the coup d’état he and other officials have been denouncing, “has been defeated by the national willpower.” 

According to Rodriguez Torres: “It is a method of coup d’état that does not imply the active participation of the Armed Forces. It has been proven around the world that this model of coup [created] by Gene Sharp, uses other strategies to overthrow governments.”

The Minister also announced that he will soon create a brigade to fight what he called “groups that generate violence”. “We are ready to activate next week, with President Nicolás Maduro, a special brigade to deal with this issue. (…) This will be a brigade that will fight against the groups that generate violence,” he declared in an interview for TELESUR yesterday.

Rodríguez Torres gave few details about the new brigade: it will be staffed by approximately 150 agents and will deal ostensibly with issues related to organize crime such as extortion, sicariato, and drug trafficking.

However the press note by the Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias frames the declarations by the Minister in a way that leave little doubt about the real purpose of this new special brigade. According to AVN:

"Since February Venezuela has faced the terrorist acts of ultra-rightists groups that have left 42 dead, hundreds injured, and destruction in public and private institutions, in their effort to overthrow the constitutional Government of Nicolás Maduro.

"58 foreign nationals have been detained for being involved in the acts. Some of them, as has been denounced by Rodríguez Torres, have links with the Colombian ex-President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and with the paramilitary and drug traffickers of that country."