One month after the United States military intervention, the president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, assures that the country has recovered, is at peace and has taken “important steps in the direction of the national meeting.” “It is a great victory for the people that there is stability,” she said in a statement from the Miraflores Palace, escorted by her brother Jorge Rodríguez, head of Parliament, and the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello.
“In these 30 days, Venezuela has transmuted and matured the impact of an aggression by the United States into tranquility. To the extremism that sought the next day and in the hours that followed the chaos in Venezuela, the Venezuelan people, with great maturity, recovered from this attack and have taken important steps in the direction of the national meeting.”
Rodríguez said he has held direct telephone conversations with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, marking a turning point in communications between both governments, guided by “interpersonal respect between the leaders.” He also recalled that the new charge d’affaires, Laura Dogu, is already in Venezuela and was in Miraflores on Monday. “Differences and controversies with the United States Government must be resolved diplomatically. That must be the way: respect.”
The president assured that there is “a national clamor” for the freedom of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, captured during the January 3 operation and who are imprisoned in New York. He referred to the march that mobilized hundreds of people, mostly public sector workers, held this Tuesday in Caracas to demand the return of the Chavismo leaders. “The homeland has arrived, peace has arrived, Venezuela needs Nicolás,” was one of the slogans of the demonstration.
The Chavista leader was sworn in two days after the military attacks as interim president. The Supreme Court authorized the interim by declaring “the forced absence” of President Nicolás Maduro which, although it does not appear in the Constitution, puts her in the role of substitute for 90 days that can be extended for another 90 days with the approval of Parliament. After that, elections should be called.
Although the turn that the country has taken in the last month has been closely followed from Washington, Rodríguez assured “politics in Venezuela must be nationalized among Venezuelans” and that the Venezuelan people “want to preserve their sovereignty and their independence process.” Among sectors of Chavismo, the protection that weighs on the country has been questioned after the US military intervention that finally triggered a restoration of relations between the countries.
This Tuesday, while Chavismo was marching, the students also demonstrated to demand speed in the drafting of the amnesty law that Rodríguez announced last Friday before the Supreme Court of Justice. The president assured that “intensive work” is being done on the proposal to present it to the Legislative Branch for its “approval.” Meanwhile, the relatives of hundreds of remaining political prisoners, and others who have begun to report their cases in recent days, are about to complete a month of vigil in front of prisons in several states of the country to demand speed in their releases and that they be granted full freedoms.
Regarding the hydrocarbons law, which fully opens the door to the private sector in the oil industry, he pointed out that the income derived from the contracts covered by the new norm will be destined to the two social funds that were created to improve the income of workers and public services, supervised by the United States.
The minimum wage has not been increased in Venezuela for four years and the Government has long since replaced labor benefits with bonuses and eliminated collective contracts. Public services, particularly electricity, have been in crisis for more than 15 years due to lack of maintenance and corruption, which is why daily blackouts persist in regions of the country. “We are going to go to where the wounds of the economic blockade have had the greatest impact on our country. We have to rebuild and it is going to take time.”
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