This Monday the people and the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) commemorate 34 years of the popular insurrection that dealt “an accurate blow to the capitalist system and to the unworthy rulers of the past who mortgaged the interests of the Republic,” said the Minister for Defense. , Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
On behalf of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, through a statement published on the social network Twitter, Minister Padrino López joins this February 27 in the commemoration of the popular insurrection 34 years ago against neoliberalism and pseudo-democracy, known As the caracazo.
«Message from the Citizen General in Chief Vladimir Padrino López, on the occasion of commemorating 34 years of the “Caracazo”, published by Prensa FANB on Twitter.
In the communiqué, Minister Padrino López ratified the popular and democratic, nationalist, anti-imperialist and very especially humanist nature of the FANB.
«We will never turn our weapons towards the people! Because like never before, we are called to build and defend together a free, independent and sovereign homeland,” he said.
Social outbreak: pivot to recover dignity
Likewise, Padrino López, through his Twitter account, emphasized that “that 27F was a pivot in our history to recover the path of dignity and justice.”
“That #27F remained in the Venezuelan collective memory as the vilest expression of the failed Punto Fijista democracy, but it was also a pivot in our history to recover the path of dignity and justice. Long live the Venezuelan people! »He posted on Twitter.
popular rebellion
On February 27, 1989, the popular rebellion called the caracazoagainst the neoliberal package imposed in the second presidential term of Carlos Andrés Pérez.
The Caracazo occurred just 25 days after Pérez took office in his second government.
The so-called package contained, among other measures, the increase in the price of gasoline, the increase in the costs of public services and the elimination of subsidies, the freezing of salaries, which unleashed the insurrection of the people and later repression by the security agencies at the time.
According to official government information at the time, the death toll was approximately 300, but it is estimated that more than 3,000 disappeared, according to unofficial records.
FANB statement
Below is the full text from the statement issued by the Bolivarian National Armed Forces:
“Thirty-four years have passed since the Venezuelan people took to the streets to reject the dire neoliberal formulas that condemned them to hunger, poverty and misery. Like a popular tsunami, the rebel crowd raised the tricolor flag of the dignity it inherited from its liberators, thus carrying out an accurate blow to the capitalist system and to the unworthy rulers of the past who mortgaged the interests of the Republic.
‘El Caracazo’… This is how this martyr insurrection against neoliberalism and pseudo-democracy was called, allowing the cultivation of the urgent need to forge a radical political change in the country in the collective conscience. Hence, such an impetuous and feverish event became -years later- the beginning of a stage of national liberation heading towards a new and definitive independence. 27-F was the main foundation of an unprecedented transformation project in Venezuela: the Bolivarian Revolution. However, due to the misfortune of fate, that demonstration of courage and bravery was brutally overshadowed by the perfidy of a stateless government that cowardly ordered the suspension of constitutional guarantees and the excessive use of public force against the most humble sectors and dispossessed
That tragic episode of national life that caused fateful numbers of deaths and disappearances will never be repeated, because now the FANB, with a clear nationalist conscience, reaffirms its Bolivarian, popular, anti-imperialist and very especially humanist character, committing itself, in the midst of of adversity, to fully defend this nation. We will never turn our weapons towards the people! Because like never before, we are called to build and defend together a free, independent and sovereign homeland.
Chávez lives!… The Homeland continues! Independence and Socialist Homeland!… We will live and win! The Sun of Venezuela is born in the Essequibo! Independence or Nothing!… Always Loyal… Never Traitors!
Vladimir Padrino López, General in Chief.
Caracas, February 27, 2023.
