Maduro: Opposition must break with conspiracy

President Maduro said yesterday that he is willing to hold talks with the opposition, but that first the opposition must “break its ties” with the “North-American Imperialist conspiracy.”

“If only they were to renounce to the ties and dependency that links them to the North-American Imperialist conspiracy against the country, if they could quit their conspiracy plans to overthrow the government and sabotage the economy, I tell them from the bottom of my heart, as chavista President, that the situation would be different [otro gallo cantaría], and that we could talk one and a million times about the problems of the country. We could debate beyond our differences. We could even reach a level of respect and coexistence for the good of the country,” Maduro declared.

He insisted two more time that the precondition for talks would be that the opposition breaks its alleged ties with the Empire: “I demand in the name of peace and the future of this country, that those groups of the opposition definitely break their ties of dependency with the gringos. Venezuela is not the United States. This is a free country, and it must continue being a free country.” And added: “I tell them [opposition], is it possible for you to break your ties of dependency with the gringos and sit with us at a nationalist roundtable to talk about the country? Is that a possibility?”

Jaua: US must stop financing NGOs that are front organization for opposition

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Elias Jaua declared today that Venezuela-US relation will only improve if the US government stops financing opposition organization in Venezuela.

“In order to advance in a normalization of our relations with the United States, its government must stop financing opposition organizations in Venezuela, which under the cover of non-governmental organizations openly oppose the Venezuelan government and have direct links with opposition parties. (…) These organizations are outside the law and they have been permanently trying to destabilize or produce violence in Venezuela,” declared Jaua.

He added that the US should also “put an end to the actions of people such as Robert Noriega who, from the United States and other countries of the continent, is articulating plans against the Venezuelan authorities.

The Agencia Venezolana de Noticias press note adds as context to Jaua’s declarations that, according to the author of “The Chávez Code”, Eva Golinger (“a recognized investigator of declassified documents”), between 2002 and 2011 the US government transferred more that 100 million dollars to “anti-chavista” organizations.  

Economic terrorism denounced by Venezuela at the WTO meeting in Bali

Venezuelan Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming informed via twitter that Vice-Minister for Commerce, William Cañas, at the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Bali, has denounced the “economic war” waged by the opposition against Venezuela.

Fleming (@Alefleming) wrote: “Venezuela denounces at the WTO (Indonesia) the use of economic terrorism as a weapon of political destabilization.”

In his intervention William Cañas declared: “there is a gigantic economic conspiracy directed by the North American Empire with the aim of imposing in Venezuela, through means outside the institutions, a political-economic model. The counter revolution [opposition] considers this is the right moment for enacting an economic war. (…) The economic war is an instrument of the political war which has the objective of disrupting the [normal] functioning of the economy until it is destroyed. Its ultimate aim is to make the country ungovernable through the destabilization of political and social life, by denying food, goods, and basic services to the population and thus finally inducing a change of political regime.”  

Opposition blamed for latest blackout

A power blackout hit last night most of the country including Caracas, which was left without electricity for more than an hour, form 8:10pm to 9:30pm.

As in the previous massive blackout in September this year, and prior to investigations, the government has been quick to accuse the opposition of sabotaging the electric grid.

President Maduro declared right after the event that he had information that the opposition had planned violent actions to be sparked by the blackout: “I have intelligence information that in three areas of the country guarimbas [violent opposition protests] were being organized. It´s very strange that right after the blackout some people went out to burn tires.” He added that State security agencies have been put in maximum alert in the case of “possible attacks by the Venezuelan right.”

“Our people do not deserve this new sabotage. They don’t deserve this from the fascist right that wants to leave our people without electricity,” complained Maduro.

Electric Energy Minister Jesse Chacón gave details of why the government believes this recent blackout is also an act of sabotage. He declared that an electricity conductor that had become detached from the transmission line 765, could not had done so by natural causes and that therefore the blackout had been “provoked.”

Minister Chacón had claimed in November this year that the National Electric System was now “bulletproof” (blindado) against any attack form “the right”. But he also warned that the opposition would try to sabotage the upcoming municipal elections by “producing” blackouts.

Via twitter, General Attorney Luisa Ortega Díaz (@lortegadiaz), seconded the sabotage accusations made by Maduro and Chacón. She promised a “criminalistics investigation” into the event and wrote: “As Attorney General I will not allow that events against the wellbeing and tranquility of Venezuelans remain unpunished.”  

Concern for Posthumous Human Rights of Comandante Chávez

The leader of the group Guardianas de Chávez, National Assembly representative Rosa León (PSUV), announced today that her group will gather signatures in several cities for a petition, addressed to “the competent agencies,” to “investigate the causes that took away the life of the Leader of the Bolivarian Revolution Hugo Chávez.”

The day for the signatures gathering drive has been set for December 10, UN Human Rights Day: An appropriate date, according to Rosa León, since “the Comandante was deprived of his right to live, and not only that, but time is passing and he is now being [posthumously] deprived of his right to justice, as the investigation into the causes of his death has not been initiated.”

Time is crucial to protect the human rights of Chávez, considers Rosa León, because the “murderers could have already escaped, especially since the intellectual authorship [of the crime] came from the Empire.”