Venezuelan Military Declares ‘Absolute Loyalty’ to Nicolás Maduro as Repression Wave Grows

The Venezuelan Armed Forces released a statement on Tuesday ratifying its “absolute loyalty” to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, whom it claims was “legitimately re-elected” in the July 28 sham presidential election.

The statement was released in response to a document that opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González published on Monday that called for the Venezuelan military to stop repressing protesters and stop Maduro’s efforts to stage a coup by refusing to recognize his defeat in the election.

The document, which has resulted in the opening of a criminal probe against both opposition leaders, also urges the Venezuelan Armed Forces to accept González as the “president-elect” of Venezuela due to evidence that the Venezuelan opposition presented indicating González defeated Maduro in the election.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López read the Armed Forces’ statement out loud on Tuesday afternoon in the company of other high-ranking military members. Padrino López — on behalf of the Armed Forces and Venezuelan police forces, also at the service of the Maduro regime — strongly rejected what he described as the “desperate and seditious statements” of the document that Machado and González signed, describing Machado as an “ultra-right-wing” figure.

The statement read:

First of all, it is important to point out that those who today claim to be democrats have a long and dark history as promoters of radical and absolutely unconstitutional, anti-democratic actions, contrary to all laws and to the highest interests of the Venezuelan people.

The statement also accused the Venezuelan opposition of requesting international military interventions against Venezuela and sanctions against the Maduro regime, which “the U.S. empire and its allies have been applying to our nation for more than a decade.”

“Therefore, it is ostensibly cynical that now this insurrectional faction of the Venezuelan political opposition is trying to cloak itself in a mantle of legality that it has never practiced,” Padrino López, reading the statement, said.

Maduro’s military chief continued by calling it “offensive” that Machado and González would try to address soldiers and police officers “who they have always despised” by “inciting them to disobey the laws and ironically, urging them to side with history and the people.”

Irónicamente, ese mismo sector que por años ha despreciado a efectivos militares y policiales, hoy pretenden lavarse la cara y hacer llamados públicos a la desobediencia y al desconocimiento de la Constitución. Tienen años estrellándose con este muro de dignidad. ¡No pasarán! pic.twitter.com/ikblMQRsqq

— Vladimir Padrino L. (@vladimirpadrino) August 6, 2024

The statement that the Venezuelan defense minister read claimed that the Venezuelan military and police have been “the most affected by the violence” of the protests:

For this reason, it is even more insulting and injurious to mention the families of such selfless men and women in uniform, who are also sensibly aggrieved by the savage and fascist destabilizing plan they are developing, which has left orphaned children and marked psychological traumas in these families. These events will not go unpunished and will be subject to iron justice.

The ongoing protests against the Maduro regime were the result of the July 28 sham election. Maduro has responded to the peaceful protests with a brutal repression campaign that has resulted in at least 24 deaths and the detention of more than 2,000 citizens who, according to dictator Maduro, will be sent to “re-education” camps.

“It is necessary to reiterate that the Presidential Elections of last July 28 were carried out under the highest standards of transparency, with the attendance of more than 900 international observers and representatives of all registered candidates,” the military said in its statement, claiming that the sham election was an “extraordinary demonstration of civism.”

Although Maduro was proclaimed the “winner” of the election, the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) has not published any results or tallies that can corroborate the socialist dictator’s alleged victory.

The Venezuelan opposition contested the claimed results and accused Maduro of attempting to steal the election. The opposition published voter data allegedly obtained from ballot centers across the nation on July 28 showing that, in reality, González defeated Maduro with a more than 30-percent vote difference.

Several countries — such as the United States, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala, and European Union states — have called Maduro’s alleged “victory” into question.

Maduro claimed that the protests in response to his alleged “victory” are part of a plot by “international Zionism,” which, according to Maduro, is financing “extremist right” groups in Venezuela to overthrow him in a coup with the aid of “social networks” and “satellites.”

The Venezuelan Armed Forces’ statement concluded by ratifying the soldiers’ “absolute loyalty” to Maduro as “constitutional president” of Venezuela and as “commander in chief” of the armed forces who, according to them, was “legitimately reelected by the People’s Power and proclaimed by the Electoral Power for the next presidential term 2025-2031.”

The statement added:

At the same time, we support his [Maduro’s] republican spirit, reflected in the proposal to settle electoral disputes through the Supreme Court of Justice, which will have the last word, demonstrating once again the strength of the democratic institutions of the country.

Padrino López has served as Maduro’s defense minister since October 2014. The Venezuelan defense minister has been long accused by the United States of being part of the Cartel of the Suns, an intercontinental cocaine trafficking operation run by high-ranking members of the Venezuelan military and by some leading figures of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Padrino López was indicted by U.S. authorities on narcoterrorism charges in 2020. According to an indictment document from the District of Columbia, Padrino López conspired with others to distribute cocaine on board an aircraft registered in the United States between 2014 and 2019.

Maduro shared a copy of the Armed Forces’ statement on his Twitter account, noting the “firm convictions” of the Armed Forces “in protecting the People of Venezuela and defending the Homeland from the fascists.”