GUANARE, Portuguesa.— Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros, yesterday November 26, denounced sectors of the opposition attempting to discredit the country, and disrupt the upcoming December 6 legislative elections with violence.
During a meeting with farmers and fishermen, the leader reported that he had received detailed information regarding the opposition’s criminal behavior, saying, “Leaders of the extreme right wing are attempting to buy people, attempting to unleash sabotage of the electrical system, undertaking criminal activities, violent acts at political events… They are paying between 30,000 to 50,000 dollars for people to pass themselves off as Chavistas and commit armed attacks, to then launch a defamation campaign around the world.”
He described as slanderous the statements made by opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup, on his Twitter account, accusing members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) of killing a Democratic Action party functionary, Luis Manuel Díaz, during a meeting in the central state of Guárico, November 25.
“I appeal for peace. Let us not be drawn into provocations of any kind. This is what the right wants,” Maduro insisted, while denouncing the complicity of The Washington Post and Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, who have questioned the legitimacy of upcoming elections.
Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Great Patriotic Front election campaign, speaking from the National Electoral Council, noted that investigators believe the killing in Guárico was related to a dispute between organized criminal gangs, and said that the PSUV will demand that slander charges be filed against Ramos, for his unfounded accusations.
Rodríguez emphasized that the act is just the kind of pretext the international right wing is looking for to attack Venezuela, and the upcoming National Assembly elections.
