28.06.2017, Venezuela.
On June 28, the Venezuelan government stated that the attacks on government buildings are part of a “coup plot”, TeleSur News Channel reports.
Accusing “extremist wings of the opposition supported by the United States” of the attacks on the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the Supreme Court, the Venezuelan government called for citizens to stand guard of the constitutional order.
On the night of June 27-28, a police helicopter attacked the buildings of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Caracas, and then it disappeared. A group of the policemen led by officer Oscar Perez, which captured the helicopter, proclaimed an uprising against what it called criminal government, the days of which are numbered. President Nicolas Maduro characterized the incident as a terrorist attack. The President also brought military hardware in the capital, and he ordered the Venezuelan Air Force and Air Defense Forces into operational readiness.
In early April, active street protests began in Venezuela, subsequently turning into armed clashes with the police. The reason for the protests was a decision of the Venezuela’s Supreme Court to limit the powers of the opposition-controlled parliament. President Maduro stated that the real goal of the opposition is to provide Western transnational companies with free access to the Venezuela’s natural resources, and he demanded the US stop supporting the opposition. More than 60 people were killed and more than 1,300 were injured during street riots.
Comments
The Maidan-like process in Venezuela, which started in the spring of 2017, has entered into its final phase. Yury Byaly, the Vice President of the Experimental Creative Center International Social Foundation, believes that President N. Maduro and the “chavistos” have few chances to retain power. First of all, the US, which is keen on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, is applying extreme pressure. Secondly, the unfinished nature of the nationalization initiated by Hugo Chavez make positions of the current government fragile. For example, the food supply, bread production in particular, still remains in the hands of private oligarchs, who are now strangulating the Maduro government. Experts also do not exclude the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela. The Pentagon has been preparing plans for this since the mid-2000s, and the Organization of American States also has been talking about a possible intervention “in the event of democratic norms being violated”. Nevertheless, this is not the first coup that the “chavistos” have experienced against themselves. In 2002, a few years after Chavez was elected president, senior military officers who opposed the new socialist government’s policies tried to overthrow Chavez. Hugo Chavez was almost forced to resign, and another president was already sworn in. However, the Socialists managed to reverse the situation. Perhaps, it was the strong support for the “chavistos” among the junior officers in the army which played the decisive role at that time.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
