Venezuela is currently experiencing the fiercest media and political onslaught of the last ten years, President Nicolás Maduro warned this Tuesday, May 17, during a press conference in the Salón Ayacucho of the Miraflores Palace, Caracas, which was live streamed to the country’s embassies and consulates across the world.
Maduro condemned the media campaign against his government, led by ultraconservative press outlets in Spain, including the dailies El Mundo and ABC, who recruit Venezuelan opposition members to slander their homeland.
In this sense, he stressed that the government of the South American nation will undertake a counteroffensive to ensure the truth gets out to the peoples of the world, and to assert its national sovereignty. Maduro also called for strengthened solidarity among sister nations to curb the constant media attacks against Venezuela.
We have seen 17 years of constant struggle and we know the means of interventionism, Maduro said, denouncing the alleged incursion into Venezuelan airspace of a Boeing 707 E-3 Sentry aircraft, “which has all the mechanisms for electronic espionage.”
“A scenario of violence is being mounted in Venezuela in order to justify foreign military intervention,” Maduro warned.
He reiterated that the preservation and protection of the social conquests of the Venezuelan people is the fundamental task of the Bolivarian Revolution.
“We are exclusively dedicated to addressing all the issues affecting our peoples and to preserving the social gains, the fundamental achievements: employment, pensions, public education, public primary health care, Barrio Adentro,” the President noted.
Maduro highlighted the Bolivarian National Economic Agenda as a means of combating the economic war the country is suffering. He emphasized the active and enthusiastic participation of the people, through the Local Production and Supply Committees (CLAP), which seek to supply food products directly to Venezuelan families and stimulate local production.
He added that there are now over 10,000 CLAPs throughout the country and that these will join other measures and programs, such as Farmapatria and the free health care system, to meet the basic needs of the population are met.
Regarding the recall referendum the opposition is currently collecting signatures for, Maduro noted that the process must be conducted according to the Constitution.
“Let’s think about defending the Constitution, in defense of the people. Again they have tried to use a democratic resource to further their own interests,” Maduro said, explaining the various steps that need to be follow in order to arrive at a recall referendum on the president’s term.
(Granma)