April 30: Another Attempt, Another Defeat
Published at: 10/05/2024 06:30 PM
Despite the fact that it has promoted the
worst crisis in the country's history, the Venezuelan opposition cannot find a
way to remove Chavista President Nicolás Maduro from power. Its
leaders trusted that the economic collapse, promoted through the
sanctions requested by them, would shake the bases of political and military support of
Chavism, and they bet on a new crusade with the self-proclamation of the opponent, Juan Guaidó, as “interim president”, a position that does not appear in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
In the document developed by
the economist and director of the Center for Workers'
Research and Training (CIFO), Manuel Sutherland, called “Venezuela: Why Did the Opposition Fail Again?”
, details how the so-called Operation Freedom was created, on April 30, 2019, which aimed at
the release of Venezuelan opponent Leopoldo
López, who was serving a sentence of almost 13 years in prison under house arrest.
However, that was only
part of the operation; in order for it to be a media event, Guaidó
announced in a video released through his account on the social network X, from the immediate
vicinity of the Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base “La Carlota”, in which he appeared surrounded by soldiers and Leopoldo López. There he assured that “today begins the definitive cessation of the usurpation” that,
according to him, Nicolás Maduro is doing and
called for a military uprising against him.
In his recording, he warned that “
there are a lot of soldiers. The military family once took the plunge. To all
who are listening to us: It's time, the time is now, not only for
calm but for courage and sanity for calm to come to Venezuela, God bless you, we move on.
We are going to recover democracy and freedom in Venezuela.”
In addition, he asked his followers
to go out and demonstrate in the streets to demand the departure of President Maduro: “We have the People of
Venezuela today, the Armed Forces
are clearly on the side of the People, on the side of the Constitution, loyal to the Venezuelan
People, to their family, to the future, to progress. Today, as president of
Venezuela, as the legitimate commander
in chief of the Armed Forces, I call on all soldiers, the entire
military family, to accompany us in this feat, as we have always done within the framework of the Constitution, within
the framework of non-violent struggle,” he said in the video
in which he appeared accompanied by the opposition member Leopoldo López.
However, Guaidó's call for civil
disobedience
caused uncertainty in the Venezuelan opposition and did not count on the fact that the military high
command has maintained its loyalty to Nicolás
Maduro and to the defense of peace in the country.
The attempted uprising Operation Freedom once again deceived
its followers, since a few hours later, its supporters were disappointed
when they arrived in La
Carlota, because they saw with their own eyes that Guaidó and the few insurgent soldiers had failed to take the base.
And that's how, at the end of the
afternoon, the promoters of the attempt ran to take refuge in the embassies of
Chile, Brazil and Spain. There was no
combat or feat, the fiasco of this plan further plunged his project for political change.
The most notable was the director
of the Bolivarian
National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Manuel Cristopher Figuera, who decided to go into exile because of the movement's failure.
President Maduro dismissed him and declared that the umpteenth armed movement against his government
had been defeated.
The armed movement left more
unknowns than answers and a declining opposition, with few signs of
life, according to political science specialists consulted by the
international opposition portal The Voice of America.
Political scientist Leandro Rodríguez Linares stressed that
the opposition has not reported what happened “with certainty” on April 30,
2019 and stated that “Operation Freedom had no major achievements, the only one was
the freedom of Leopoldo López. That date marked the decline of Guaidó,” he said. He even stated that “that internal and external
support, with support from 60 countries, was diluted. That date is
relevant in our political history because Guaidó began a decline from
which he has not been able to recover.”
Later, in statements by the
deputy Jorge Rodríguez, representative of the Bolivarian Government in the Mexican
negotiations for that
time, he announced that “Venezuela
is at peace while remaining alert to a new violent
onslaught by the Venezuelan opposition, who does not fully understand that it is under the respect of
laws and the Constitution that we can achieve healthy coexistence within
differences”.
After reviewing
the events of the past few days, it is obvious that the opposition has no
intention of promoting national peace.
AMELYREN BASABE/ Mazo News Team