General Jesús Alberto Milano Mendoza did speak out against Maduro, but in January 2019, not after the 2024 elections, as indicated in a TikTok video also posted on WhatsApp. The military man was in exile at the time and has not made any public appearances since then.
Text: Alexis Correia
«We cannot continue to be indifferent to the immense social outcry of hunger and misery that runs through our streets (…) this dictatorship intends to consolidate a communist model in our country and we will not allow it.» A soldier named Jesús Alberto Milano Mendoza speaks out against the Maduro government in an audio recording —with video support— that circulates through WhatsApp groups in August 2024. But it is a manipulation: General Milano Mendoza did record the video, but in January 2019.
The audio was recorded on August 17, 2024 in a video on the TikTok account of the user “Chismoloco” (@josebedoyahumorista). The military statement is presented as if it were a “breaking news” —that is, corresponding to the events following the 2024 presidential elections—, but this is misleading.
The sound of the video for “Chismoloco” is exactly the same as that of this video that has been on YouTube since January 2019, that is, more than five years ago, and that was broadcast on the NTN24 channel.
Milano Mendoza appears surrounded by five other uniformed officers. The context at that time was the political crisis that led to the international community’s refusal to recognize Maduro’s inauguration — re-elected for the 2019-2025 period — and the imminent swearing-in of Juan Guaidó as “interim president.”
Who is Jesus Alberto Milano Mendoza?
Major General Jesús Alberto Milano Mendoza was appointed military attaché at the Venezuelan Embassy in Chile in 2016, according to the Official Gazette.
«Milano Mendoza was a staunch supporter of Chávez, he was commander of the presidential Honor Guard Regiment and remained loyal to the revolution. His separation from Chavismo came with Nicolás Maduro, who in 2017 dismissed him, when the high-ranking officer no longer had sympathies with the government in power. He reappeared in Bogotá with a statement, at the end of January 2019, in uniform and surrounded by soldiers,» reports Sebastiana Barráez, a journalist specializing in military sources, in a profile from 2020.
*Read also: Former foreign ministers say that the TSJ’s support for Maduro’s reelection “is not valid”
That is to say, at the time he recorded Milano Mendoza’s statement against the Maduro government, which he describes as a “dictatorship,” the general was most likely safe outside the country.
As far as we know, his message had no major impact on the support of the FANB —or at least of its leadership— for Maduro. There is no known public performance by Milano Mendoza after the events of 2019, or at least there is no record of it on the Internet.
Journalist Barráez gave her opinion on the situation within the FANB for August 2024 in an interview she gave to Ei Pitazo. So far, there is no evidence of military uprisings against Maduro after his proclamation as re-elected president by the CNE and his confirmation in the form of a TSJ ruling, despite the claim of fraud by the Unitary Platform.
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