Condor Operation. Rock and Roll Plan

Following the announcements that Venezuela’s electoral authorities will abide by the rulings of several lower courts and indefinitely postpone the recall referendum process against president Maduro, PSUV vice-president Diosdado Cabello declared that the government has discovered plans for a coup d’état by the opposition.

Cabello said that the arrest on October 18 of José Vicente García, a militant of the opposition party Voluntad Popular, had revealed the plot. According to the government when García was arrested he had in his possession two hand grenades and two teargas bombs which he was supposedly planning to use against a police post in the State of Táchira.

Documents in Garcia’s phone were also found, according to Cabello, detailing a “Plan Condor Rock and Roll.” The “subversive” plan linked an alleged prison break attempt by Daniel Ceballos. The plan involves other Voluntad Popular leaders such as Gaby Arellano and recently arrested Yon Goicochea.

The plan has four phases, which mix subversive activities with what is assumed to be opposition plans to protest the blocking of the recall referendum process. According to Cabello in Phase 1, from 14 to 25 October, the opposition coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) would promote the “institutional concept of a Popular Recall Referendum,” and the National Assembly would convene extraordinary sessions to discuss the absence of Maduro from his post and his alleged Colombian nationality. In a second Phase of the plan, from 26 to 28 October, the MUD would call for a mock signature gathering drive. They would also call for a national strike and for the “presence of NGO’s and other right-wing allies.” In Phase 3, from 29 October to November 9, the MUD would call for a nation-wide protest and a march to the National Assembly to hand over the signatures for the referendum petition. In this phase the National Assembly would depose the President and opposition militants would take over main military barracks in the country. The final Phase 4, from November 9 until “The downfall of Maduro,” includes the call for international support of the opposition.