The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, led the entrance ceremonies of teacher Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa to the National Pantheon, to whom he paid sincere tribute and recognition of his work and legacy to the country’s public education.
“Master Luis Beltrán always adhered to popular wisdom, to understanding the problems of politics and life, from that perspective. His life is summed up in humility, in the ability to understand humanity, from simplicity,” said the president when using the microphones in front of the audience present in the sacred precinct.
Maduro highlighted that teacher Prieto Figueroa continued the educational ideas of Andrés Bello and Simón Rodríguez, and that as Minister of Education, he dedicated himself to the recovery of the works of the Liberator Simón Bolívar and his teacher Andrés Bello.
“He designed the concept of the Teaching State, taking the idea of republican education, public education, free and driven by the warmth of a society with true values; more human,” he reflected.
He highlighted Maestro Prieto as a man of integrity, who confronted the representative and oligarchic powers of the Punto Fijo Pact, which earned him the contempt of these elites. “The elites of the Punto Fijo pact waged war on him, but teacher Luis Beltrán advanced with his union and peasant leadership to found at that time the People’s Electoral Movement (MEP),” he recalled.
Due to his political position, Maduro defined him as “the first leftist leader who devised the concept of “the cowardly left”, they played into the hands of the Puntofijismo and capitalism system in the 60s and 70s, which did so much damage to the transforming forces of Venezuela.”
In this sense, he highlighted the value of those who have remained firmly attached to their convictions and alongside the noble struggles of the people. “As I get older, I get more revolutionary,” he said.
“Today Maestro Prieto Figueroa is in the National Pantheon. “May his memory live forever!” exclaimed the president.
