The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, interviewed by the Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet regarding the balance of the year 2022, highlighted how the interests that from inside and outside Venezuela are trying to overthrow the Government through undemocratic means, including imposing a supposed interim government, not they understand the historical and political complexity of the Venezuelan people. He stressed that there has been a dialogue with all the oppositions, especially with the most radical, and that has allowed the climate of harmony with which the year ended.
“They did not understand and do not understand Venezuela, they do not understand the republican institutional strength of Venezuela, they do not understand the popular strength of the Bolivarian revolution; They believed that it was enough to carry out a smear campaign against Maduro, and they removed him,” he explained.
The president stressed that the factors that are trying to put an end to 21st century socialism in Venezuela “do not understand that Maduro is here as a product of a historical process, of a force, of a powerful civic-military union, with deep ideological, cultural, and political roots.” ” and referred to as “not understanding that they crashed, and when they crashed they broke into several pieces. So the first thing we have to say is that we are in dialogue with all the oppositions.
He also pointed out the scenario of various oppositions to his government in a complex configuration that the international media has wanted to present as a single political force against the Bolivarian Government, when in reality they are a range of dispersed interests, this after Ramonet asked him to describe the most recent chapter of the dialogue with one of the oppositions.
“Now, the most famous opposition in the West, called the Unitary Platform of Venezuela, which was led by Juan Guaidó in an erratic manner for a while, and which brings together people like Capriles Radonski, Ramos Allup and others, Manuel Rosales governor of Zulia… Well, in effect, with that opposition we have a conversation, a permanent dialogue, we have a negotiation and we have agreements. We have signed two agreements in Mexico, between the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and that opposition Unitary Platform,” he said.
Maduro pointed out how “in the world they make a mistake, an error induced by the news agencies and the great hegemonic media of world capitalism, of saying that the Bolivarian government that I preside over, and the Bolivarian forces, entered into dialogue with “the” opposition”, when in fact it is about several sectors with divergent interests.
“There is no “opposition” or “an” opposition in Venezuela. The first thing to understand is that, in Venezuela, there are several oppositions, and this process of fragmentation, creation and atomization of the opposition has occurred as a result of the extremist policies that were applied for four years since the government of Donald Trump. ”, said the president.
He said that immense efforts were undertaken from the US “to bring Venezuela to its knees, to subdue Venezuela” causing “serious damage that was done economically, financially, commercially, energetically, socially” and pointed out how the The effects caused by the blockades caused an implosion in the opposition “product of the application of a policy out of reality, we could say… Trying to impose parallel governments in Venezuela, parallel powers, that were not based or had roots in reality,” he said .
“They believed from the US empire and from some sectors of Europe, and from some right-wing governments in Latin America, that the job was done, as we say here “the errand was done”, that’s it, ready,” said the president and recalled how those coup sectors “decreed that there was a “President” and that was it”, pretending that decades of struggle from progressivism in the country would come to an end.
Dialogue to recover the nation’s resources
“The last agreement we signed is a very well-worked social agreement, in detail, to recover frozen 3.15 billion dollars, sequestered in banks abroad,” said the president after being rebuked regarding the dialogues with one of the oppositions.
“That money belongs to the Venezuelan State, to Venezuelan society,” he specified and described how “a plan has been made to recover that money and invest it in public services that we need, in electricity, in water, in education, in health and in partially mitigate the damage from the torrential rains of 2022… That agreement has been signed,” he said.
The head of state pointed out the difficulties for the United States government to release the resources. “I truly trust in the power of the given word, in the power of the signed word, the word is committed there, for example, of an honorable person like Gerardo Blyde, who is the head of the negotiating Commission of this sector of the opposition, and I trust that they keep their word, and they will be in front of the country if they comply or not. Let’s wait,” Maduro said.
Dialogue with all oppositions
“We (the Bolivarian Government) in the year 2022 stimulated the dialogue with all the oppositions, I had meetings in the presidential palace with the Democratic Alliance, which brings together the general secretaries of the Acción Democrática parties, Copei (Social Christian Party Copei), the Primero Venezuela party, the Cambiemos party, and the Avanzada Progresista party,” the president told journalist Ignacio Ramonet.
He said that this alliance, different from the one that Guaidó led until recently, is the opposition sector with the most votes in the last elections for governors and mayors that the country held.
“I also met with the Fuerza Vecinal party, which is a young group made up of some 40 mayors in the country… and I received their criticism, their contributions, their proposals, we listened to each other, we talked at length,” he explained. He referred to dialogues with “Antonio Ecarri, from the Lápiz party, which brings together a group of educational, cultural, and social movements… Well, and thus we are in a permanent political dialogue… with all the economic sectors… all the social and cultural sectors of the country” , said.
“If something characterizes me as President of the Republic… it is that I have always held my hand… always willing to listen, to dialogue, to talk with all sectors, and I think it is one of the keys that explains why in the year 2022 we have consolidated this climate of harmony, of peace, of coexistence that Venezuela has today”, highlighted Maduro.
