On Monday evening Nicolás Maduro launched a message aimed at avoiding demobilization and encouraging the Chavista bases. “Whatever they do, how they do it, where they do it, they will not be able to defeat Venezuela. We are invincible. They could not and will never be able to defeat our country,” the Bolivarian president said in a broadcast of his weekly program. With Maduro+, when there are only a few hours left before a national mobilization of militants and sympathizers of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), in power, begins on Tuesday in defense of sovereignty and with two central themes in the background: the flag and the sword of Bolívar.
Maduro must demonstrate, at least to his faithful, that he is in control of the situation. It is crucial that Venezuela’s troubled and unstable social climate does not sink further. In the midst of the military crisis with the United States and in an atmosphere of growing paranoia on the streets of the country, Hugo Chávez’s successor has been displaying unstable behavior and making contradictory speeches for weeks. On the one hand, it calls without nuance for peace, dialogue and the reduction of tension. On the other hand, it resorts to the rhetoric of the external enemy to reject the threats of the White House, which from this same class lists the so-called Cartel of the Suns as a foreign terrorist organization, placing Maduro himself at the head.
The Venezuelan leader, however, avoided commenting on this group considered by the State Department as a network of drug traffickers and, therefore, as a priority objective in the war on drugs launched by Donald Trump. Maduro has rejected “these schemes of psychological, political and diplomatic wars” while the scenario of a call between the two leaders is emerging in Washington, according to sources close to these contacts cited by the Axios portal.
The Republican president used the argument of the fight against illegal drug trafficking, especially fentanyl, to increase pressure on Venezuela, employ Gerard Ford the largest aircraft carrier in the US Navy and in the world, launches itself into the hunt for suspected drug traffickers. As part of the so-called Operation Southern Boat, the United States has attacked at least 21 boats since September 2 and killed at least 83 people on board.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s skies stand out on maps of flight tracking pages as the least traveled in the region. The airlines Air Europa and Plus Ultra have also suspended their flights between Madrid and Caracas this Tuesday, thus joining Iberia and other international airlines such as Avianca or TAP. At the same time, several US military planes flew over Caribbean waters on Monday between the coast of Venezuela and the island of Curacao, which are about 65 kilometers apart, according to flight tracking page FlightRadar24.
