Maduro and Chavismo close ranks in the face of US pressure

The Bolivarian Revolution’s top leadership has been put on alert following the U.S. government’s announcement that it has doubled the reward for anyone offering information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Bolivarian leader has been identified by Washington as the alleged leader of the Cartel of the Suns, a criminal organization headed by senior military personnel that Washington claims is resonsible for trafficking drugs to the United States. On Wednesday, the State Department reported that it had seized approximately $700 million in Maduro-related assets.

The country’s public powers, all controlled by the tentacles of Chavismo, issued a series of statements in solidarity with Maduro, defending him and denying the accusations. Also, in a network broadcast, as had already occurred in January of this year on the eve of his new inauguration as president, all members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, including the Presidential Honor Guard and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, came out in defense of the president. The televised statements in support of Maduro’s “military-police-popular fusion” included the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, the Bolivarian National Police, and the Judicial Police.

The faces of Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior and Justice, and Jorge Rodríguez, President of the National Assembly, were stern. Their tone was decisive and threatening. Cabello denounced Monday the dismantling of “terrorist cells,” allegedly linked to the opposition, in Caracas and Maturín. The minister accuses opposition leader María Corina Machado and Iván Simonovis, police chief and longtime enemy of Chavismo in exile, of being behind them.

One of these groups, Cabello stated, intended to place an explosive device at the recently inaugurated Victory Monument of the Great Patriotic War against Nazism, in honor of the former Soviet Union, located near Plaza Venezuela, in a very central area of Caracas.

Police checkpoints, “strategic patrols,” and open-air intelligence operations continue to operate on the streets of Caracas and the rest of the country, now reinforced. This Monday, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) called for a rally of its members in Caracas in support of Maduro.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said Washington’s announcement offering $50 million for information leading to the arrest of Maduro, who the Donald Trump administration accuses of promoting international terrorism, is “a political propaganda operation,” which he called “a joke.” “The most ridiculous smokescreen we’ve ever seen,” he added.

“It is disrespectful to the intelligence of all of you, the generals present, who have judgment, who know the world, who have trained so hard, to simply claim that your commanders, that President Maduro, is involved in drug trafficking,” said Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, surrounded by members of the High Command at a press conference.

Padrino said such accusations constitute “immorality” and that the criminal gangs the Trump administration refers to as supporters or partners of the Bolivarian Revolution (such as Tren de Aragua) “are completely dismantled in the country.”

Finally, after three days of silence, Maduro responded to the United States. “I am a man of peace,” he declared on his television program. “Leave the quiet one alone. I say to the imperialists: don’t dare, because the response could be the beginning of the end of the American empire.”

On this occasion, an evidently irritated Cabello placed particular emphasis on his statements to make the audience understand that he is not playing games with the accusations.

He said the Machado-Simonovis alliance is linked to criminal and drug trafficking groups associated with the Colombian oligarchy, who have been planning to sow terror in the country, and that no one should be surprised by the names revealed in the ongoing investigations. “There are people wondering what’s going to happen,” he commented. “The only thing that’s going to happen is that we’re going to screw them over.”

Opposition reaction

Meanwhile, from hiding, Machado is redoubling her challenge to the government. Support for her cause from some — but not all — Washington hawks, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is evident.

Determined to assert that the Chavista government is much weaker than widely believed, Machado expressed her “immense gratitude” to the Trump administration for doubling the reward for Maduro’s capture. “I think things are going to move really quickly; the message has reached not only Maduro, but also the leaders close to him.”

Machado stated that the pressure “will be so great” that Maduro will be forced to forge an agreement to relinquish power and avoid capture. This is a scenario that observers in Venezuela consider, in principle, unlikely.

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