The Sacudón against the Evil Plan

This is a translation of a note published yesterday by the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN) about the announcements made by President Maduro on Tuesday night. The article is illustrative of the open bias common in Venezuela’s public official media. It also gives a taste of the conspiracy theory narrative that has by now become the official rhetoric of the government.

(Note that magnicidio is not mentioned among the list of “systematic attacks” against the Revolution, despite being such an important theory a month ago. I’m still betting on magnicidio making a comeback sometime soon.)

The Robust Revolution is Unbreakable in the Face of the Unremitting Onslaught by the Right

Caracas, 3 September

The attacks of the right against the Bolivarian Revolution, and against all that derives from it (accomplishments, advances, social programs, initiatives in favor of the people), have not rested in the last 15 years. The important coups which have intensified since April 2013 to today are evidence of this.

The objective of this minority sector of the population [the Right], that without moderation has fiercely attacked the people and its rights which are today protected by the State is, without a doubt, to recover its privileges affected by the fact that now the wealth of the country is distributed with equality and justice.

Material, economic, and human losses have resulted from an “Evil Plan” of the Venezuelan Right, as was explained on Tuesday night from Miraflores Palace, Caracas, by the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro.

The Head of State –who addressed the country on a radio and television cadena to announce the beginning of a new phase of the Bolivarian Revolution in the service of the People –reminded the audience that the Right has opened many fronts of attack in order to systematically and continuously harass the People. In the last 17 month alone, these minority sectors have activated five fronts, right after the physical departure of the comandante Hugo Chávez, that add up to the many other fronts activated since the time the Venezuelan People took over power in December 1999 with Chávez.

One of these five fronts of aggression against the People became active after the elections of April 2013, won by Maduro. Extremist acts left 11 Venezuelans dead and many injured. This was a consequence of the loosing candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, in a clearly irresponsible act, calling his followers to set the streets on fire and to not acknowledge the electoral results.

From that moment on, the attacks have become systematic: War against the energy system [Guerra Eléctrica], daily psychological war, economic war, smuggling, all of which are supported by national and international media corporations. The best example of this was the guarimabas [street barricade protests] which were part of the agenda of violence of the Right this last year.

In the face of these attacks, the answer of the People and the government has been more work, loyalty, and love. “The tests have been overcome,” said President Maduro, who emphasized that, in the face of each of these attacks, the profoundly human character of a conscious People prevailed.

The national leader stressed that, despite these attacks that slow down the socialist policies of the Bolivarian Government for dignifying the People, the government has managed to advance forward with gigantic steps in favor of the wellbeing of the Venezuelan population.

However Maduro explained that the joint work of the People and the Government will continue with strength, and now even with more vigor, faicing the economic war and the boicot that has become more intense in these last years, and against which the State has taken the definite decision to counter-attack.

For this reason the President made an appeal to redouble the efforts: “We need to attack them all. We need to overcome this test that life has put to us in the struggle against smuggling, speculation, criminal economy, and we must come out of it stronger, with a productive economy, with an articulated economy integrated in all its different dimensions.”

(Image AVN)