Maduro: Critics and opposition are in cahoots with paramilitary

President Maduro has accused critics of his new security initiative, the Operativos de Liberación y Protección del Pueblo (OLP), of being involved with “paramilitarism.”

Maduro said that the newspaper El Nacional had made critical comments about the OLP because of the involvement of the newspaper with paramilitaries: “They came out like crazy, for what? (…) they came out like crazy because they are fully involved [metidos hasta los teque-teques] with Colombian paramilitary groups, of the so called bacrim [from bandas criminals, criminal gangs.]”

Maduro also directly accused opposition leader and governor of Miranda state, Herique Capriles, of being the “articulator of paramilitary gangs in Miranda.”

“I am saying it, and when I say it, I know what I’m saying,” said Maduro. “I am waiting for all the clues to fall into place, to lead to results,” he added.

According to the president, Capriles has been secretly touring the State of Miranda personally organizing criminal groups: “He is traveling around the state, do you know why? Why he went to Higuerote? Why went to Valles del Tuy? And I say this because I have nothing to lose and everything to win: do you know why he went on a secret tour to all these municipalities of Miranda? To articulate with criminals and with [criminal] gangs,” claimed Maduro.

Maduro also accused Capriles of deliberately weakening Miranda’s police in order to make life easier for criminal groups: “Do you think he did this [weaken the police] only because he is an incompetent? No, it is because he is permanently conspiring. He is of the type that does the deed and the hides, he is of the type that become used to being inside the closet and not showing his true nature.”

Crime in Miranda state is, according to Maduro, generated by “the evilness of the battered right [la derecha maltrecha]. They give the orders to go out and kill people through these groups.”

“There are criminal gangs and camps [in Miranda], where we have even captured Colombians. These groups prepare themselves, they train. They take young people and then they tell them to go out and try to steal and to kill,” explained Maduro.

The president insisted that when he speaks, he does so backed by “specific and overwhelming evidence. When I say something it is something we are going to demonstrate and to prove.”