Maduro: radicalize the revolution in the face of permanent economic sabotage

“Enough of these meetings [with the private sector.] We will radicalize the revolution,” said president Nicolas Maduro yesterday.

According to Maduro the government has “called and talked to the private sector, they come here with innocent looks on their faces [caritas de cordero], but then they behave like wolfs and stab the people.”

“I am willing to radicalize the revolution against all those who sabotage the economy. I ask all my ministers, and all the powers of the state, to be though [mano dura]. Whoever is not able to sustain his economic enterprise, then leave. Whoever we find in a conspiracy will go to jail. [They are] in a permanent sabotage,” added the president.

Maduro also promised to jail those behind the web page DolarToday: “We are going to put behind bars all the thieves of DolarToday that are doing economic war from Miami. I swear it. And I know very well that I will fulfill this promise. I know how to do it, legally, through our extradition agreements. The United States is under obligation to hand over these thieves who stole the money of the Venezuelan banks.”

In its press note reporting Maduro’s declarations, the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias provides this definition of the “economic war”:

“The economic war is a phenomenon driven by the Venezuelan right wing, and its allied business owners, since 2013, through speculation with prices and hoarding, and the slowdown of the sale of basic products in order to generate discontent.”