From Economic war to Economic Coup

This week several government officials have insisted on blaming the opposition and the Empire for Venezuela’s economic troubles.

The Vice-president, Jorge Arreaza, announced yesterday that a food warehouse in Anzoátegui had been raided by the government because it contained tons of hoarded goods. He linked the owners of the deposit to members of the opposition party Voluntad Popular and said this was evidence that the opposition is pushing for “an economic coup d’état” which would “reedit the political violence that caused 43 deaths last year.”

The President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, backed Arreaza’s version. He said that the warehouse raided by the government is “directly linked to the company Diamante Trading Investment LTD, represented by Peggy Carolina Ordaz Quijada, militant of the party Voluntad Popular.”

Cabello also accused the Venezuelan Catholic Church of “having engaged the parties of the right to try to topple the government,” the student leaders of having “received orders to agitate in the street,” the opposition of bringing into the country “reporters with experience in war conflicts,” opposition leader María Corina Machado of stablishing “a laboratory to send text messages to militaries inciting them to take over public institutions, and “the right” of “hiring mercenaries to bring them into Venezuela.” All this in the context of a “non-conventional war against our people,” which Cabello has denominated the “La Salida 2 plan.”

Addressing a crowd of followers in Plaza Venezuela, Cabello also explained that the scarcity of basic goods is the responsibility of business owners that refuse to produce. “The right” is to blame, according to Cabello, for the current scarcity levels: “do you know why you have to suffer long lines [to buy food]? Because of the right!”

Cabello also said that the opposition is planning more protests: “you can be sure that everything is ready for a social explosion [incited by the oppositions], (…) but it won’t happen, because the only one that has the right to take to the streets is the socialist people.”

Continuing his extended tour of several countries this week, President Maduro has repeatedly claimed that capitalism, the United States, or the Empire, are conspiring to bring down oil prices in an attempt to destroy the OPEC and specially hurt Venezuela.

As to events back home, Maduro has declared that “the Venezuelan people have been ambushed with this issue of affecting supply, [this is related to] rumor we have dealt with peacefully. There [in Venezuela] what we have is our people being taken care of by our government, coming out of this ambush, while I am in this middle of this tour, for the benefit of the people.”

He has asked the people however to be patient in the face of the effects of this “ambush by the parasitic bourgeoisie,” and to work for an “economic renaissance in 2015.”

This has also been a week of intense conspiracy rumors: social media has been active with information about plans from inside chavismo for a coup d’état against Maduro.

(A curious tweet by Communication and Information Minister Jaqueline Faria)