This Tuesday, Chavismo mobilized thousands of Venezuelans in defense of national symbols and against the strategy of pressure that the United States is exerting in Venezuela. The demonstration was proposed as an “anti-imperialist” and “in defense of sovereignty” act, with its epicenter in Caracas and repeats in various cities. The march, called by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), gathered around two central references: the eight-star tricolor flag and Simón Bolívar’s sword with the aim of sending a message of unity inside and outside the country. The crowd, wearing berets and waving Venezuelan flags, gathered amid chants calling for a “sovereign homeland.” Hundreds of uniformed soldiers accompanied the demonstration, outnumbering civilians in some places.
One of the participants, Joselyn Báez, 32 years old, a student of International Relations and assistant to the Vice President, expressed her support for “Maduro and his fight”. Báez says she is willing to engage in armed struggle in the event of an attack and assures that she has received training to do so “responsibly”. “Standing with crossed hands is not defending the country.” For public workers, Trump wants to establish a “hegemony” and for this reason “he has declared a peaceful country that only wants peace to be a terrorist”.
“Christ, the first socialist of humanity”, read a sign held by a man in uniform among the crowd gathered around Plaza Venezuela, the leader of the procession. “Long live the Bolivarian homeland!” one of the hosts of the event harangued from the microphone. “We are not a threat, we are hope,” he shouted. Meanwhile, on state television, they underlined the spirit of this “military-police-popular” march to claim “the unity of the country” against “imperialism’s intention to take possession of the natural resources” of Venezuela. Most of the participants were civil servants, police students, officers from all police forces and the military.
Moraima Pérez, 65, manager and social worker, defended during the march that Venezuelans are “a people who have the right to freedom” and that “they do not depend on what the United States decides.” The family of this public employee is in Spain and in recent days they have received phone calls of concern about what is happening in the country. “I told my sister: ‘Everything is quiet here,’” she says. Pérez assures that he is not afraid: “We will continue to go out into the streets as long as we can, to continue with this peace and let it be what God gives us.”
The mobilization includes the deployment on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the party’s new grassroots structure, the so-called global Bolivarian community commands, created to manage and control activities considered “destabilizing” in neighborhoods.
Chavismo’s street actions contrast, in any case, with the real popular support it maintains. Analysts estimate that, currently, around 80% of Venezuelans reject Maduro’s regime, compared to the 20% who continue to support him.
The road moves as the confrontation with the United States intensifies and uncertainty grows. This Monday, Washington made official the designation of the so-called Cartel of the Suns – which targets Nicolás Maduro and the military leadership – as a foreign terrorist organization, in parallel with an unprecedented naval and air deployment in the Caribbean.
Chavismo responded to this new pressure measure with a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which it described the measure as a “hoax”, a “vile lie” and a “new attempt at regime change”. Venezuela’s ruling party frames the persecution of the alleged cartel – whose existence is in doubt – as a strategy to justify a possible intervention in Venezuela.
Maduro took advantage of his weekly Monday night program on VTV, the state’s main radio station, to connect this Tuesday’s mobilization with the narrative of the external siege. Without directly mentioning the Cartel of the Suns, he assured that, despite sanctions and the military deployment of the United States, “they will not be able to defeat Venezuela” and called the country “invincible” in the face of Washington’s “psychological, political and diplomatic wars”.
At the moment all scenarios seem open. Despite the strategy of pressure and psychological warfare against the regime, Trump has opened the door to direct dialogue with Nicolás Maduro. On the same day that Washington officially designated the Chavista as the leader of a foreign terrorist organization, the Republican notified his team of his intentions for a phone call between the two, according to news portal Axios. So far, no precise date has been set for the conversation, according to the same sources.
Sources familiar with the situation in Venezuela do not rule out any options, but believe it is “highly” unlikely that Maduro will leave power. They explain that for this to happen an internal division would be necessary which, at the moment, does not seem to occur. “You have to know them well. In Chavismo there are people willing to die to defend their positions”, suggests one of those sources.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan airspace remains nearly empty on flight tracking maps, reflecting subsequent cancellations that have kept activity to a minimum. Other companies operating on the Madrid-Caracas route joined the first suspensions after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a warning on Friday to “exercise extreme caution” when flying over Venezuela due to a “potentially dangerous situation” linked to increased military activity in the area.
