In a militarized Venezuela three days before the presidential inauguration, Nicolás Maduro continues to redouble his bet with arrests of foreigners arriving in the country. This Tuesday, the same day that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published an extensive and devastating report about violations of freedoms, the Chavista authorities detained seven other foreigners. These are two Americans, two Colombians and three Ukrainians, whom he accused the Argentine gendarme in a similar way: he accused them of attempting “terrorist actions.”
“Make no mistake about me, we are determined to win,” exclaimed Maduro, self-proclaimed winner of the presidential elections. It was this Tuesday afternoon, in a meeting with the Bolivarian Militia. “Only today, we have captured, at this time, seven foreign mercenaries, including two important mercenaries from the United States,” he advanced, within the framework of that official act, in which he swore in the Combatant Corps and He activated the Venezuelan Comprehensive Defense Organization for the first time.
The account that Maduro also made replicated the position of his regime’s Minister of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, by coinciding with the figure of 125 regarding those imprisoned for political reasons. Maduro specified that this number of detainees corresponds to people of 25 nationalities, and all detained between the months of last November and December.
Everything occurs in the midst of the controversy with Argentina over the arrest of gendarme Nahuel Agustín Gallo, who was first accused of espionage and now accused of participating in an alleged plot to assassinate Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
“Fascists, imperialists, make no mistake with me. Don’t make mistakes with me again. Make no mistake about the people of Venezuela, we are determined to win,” Maduro warned this Tuesday.
He alluded to Edmundo González Urrutiathe elected president of Venezuela who met with Javier Milei on Saturday and in the last hours met with Joe Biden in the United States. He referred to him as “psychopathic oligarchy” that, “in their desperation, they go to the north believing that there they can gain the strength that they do not have here.” And he concluded in this regard: “There you who are slaves of the North American empire.”
González Urrutia had denounced this Tuesday the kidnapping of her son-in-law, just as María Corina Machado had revealed that her mother’s house is under siege by Chavismo.
Regarding the numerous arrests of opponents, Maduro said that “psychopathic fascism had plans with foreign mercenaries to fill the country with bombs and carry out attacks against leaders of the revolution.”
He also activated the Comprehensive Defense Organization of Venezuela. “It is activated from today to the night, and during the 8th and 9th, to guarantee victory and peace. No one will be able to defeat us,” stressed the leader of the Chavista regime.
Last Monday, the self-proclaimed Venezuelan president had maintained that Nahuel Gallo, the Argentine gendarme detained at the beginning of December, had entered to “attempt the life of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.” This is how he speculated in a press conference, while accusing the Argentine government: “It is involved in violent plans to attack peace in Venezuela. This is how I denounce it.”
This Tuesday he made the panorama more general, since he stated that foreigners were planning to “carry out terrorist actions against the peace of Venezuela”, and affirmed that such actions are of a “fascist” nature.
Next Friday, January 10, is the date that had been set in advance for the eventual transfer of command within the framework of the elections that took place last July and after which, under a blanket of irregularities, Maduro and his regime proclaimed itself the winner, in what, if successful, will be its third consecutive six-year term.
The Venezuelan Executive announced last week a deployment of 1,200 military personnel with the objective of “guaranteeing peace” in view of the inauguration, for Friday, when both Maduro and González Urrutia, from abroad, proclaim that they will be sworn into office. of representative for the period 2025-2031.