Venezuela army vows ‘absolute loyalty’ to Maduro

Venezuela’s military has criticised an appeal by the opposition for the support of the armed forces amid the disputed re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, saying that it is “desperate and seditious”.
On Monday opposition leaders Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado appealed to the “conscience” of the military and police officers – traditionally allies of Maduro – to “take the side of the people”.
They were met with a criminal probe from prosecutors investigating them for announcing an election winner other than Maduro, instigating disobedience, insurrection, and conspiracy.
In a statement declaring “absolute loyalty” to Maduro, Defence Minister and army chief Vladimir Padrino said: “We strongly reject the desperate and seditious approaches” that “seek to undermine our unity and institutionality, but will never succeed”.
The opposition insists Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful victor of the July 28 presidential election, which has plunged the oil-rich nation into political crisis.
The opposition maintain Gonzalez won more than 6mn votes, compared to 2.7mn won by Maduro, and have published online a copy of ballots from 30,000 voting machines.
The government says it also has copies of the ballots but has not yet published them, nor has the country’s electoral authority, whose website has been down since the early hours of Monday, July 29.
Multiple countries, including the United States and Argentina, have recognised Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner, while others, such as the European Union, have stopped short of doing so while calling for full publication of voting records.
The National Electoral Council said on Monday that it had presented all these records to the Supreme Court for certification, as requested by Maduro – but not publicly.
The contested election sparked protests last week that left at least 11 civilians dead, according to rights groups, with more than 2,000 arrested.
On Monday Maduro called for a boycott of the WhatsApp messaging platform, alleging that military, police and community leaders who support his re-election had received threats via the app.
“I am going to delete my WhatsApp from my phone forever, little by little I will move my contacts to Telegram, to WeChat,” said Maduro, who has also taken aim at TikTok and Instagram for promoting “division” and “hatred” among Venezuelans.
Machado – who was barred from running in the election and backed Gonzalez Urrutia – denounced a “campaign of terror” in the country.
“They want to intimidate us so that we do not communicate, because isolated we would be much weaker and that is not going to happen. Fear will not paralyse us and we will not leave the streets,” Machado said in an audio message released on social media.
European Union spokesman Peter Stano told Venezuela’s government yesterday that a campaign of intimidation against the opposition “needs to stop”.
“We are calling on the authorities to stop this, this campaign of intimidation of the opposition and judicial intimidation,” he said.