Spanish – Venezuela’s interim president, Juan Guaidó, has had several setbacks in his crusade to besiege the Nicolás Maduro regime from within. The Venezuelan Armed Forces continue to refuse to recognize him as commander in chief, and this has worn out the last cartridges reserved for this route. However, there is a way out that has been put on the table several times: a humanitarian peace operation.
This time, Retired Captain Omer Enrique Hevia Araujo requested in a letter reviewed by Infobae. There, the former soldier asks the president of the National Assembly to “request, for the good and the salvation of Venezuela and the freedom of our people, the intervention of a humanitarian multinational force of peace, as provided for in our constitution.”
Today, the Venezuelan population is plunged into a debacle. The economy on the verge of default, the health system crippled by the growing and uncontrollable wave of infections resulting from COVID-19, and fuel shortages have triggered protests in several states of the country. Therefore, such a request to the Venezuelan president is more than urgent.
Hevia Araujo’s letter appeals to the historical memory not only of Guaidó but also of every reader who stumbles upon it since it outlines two key military insurrections to Venezuela’s credit: the Carupanazo and the Porteñazo. Both occurred in 1962.
In the letter, the former captain recalls that Guaidó’s maternal grandfather “had the opportunity to participate in these two military uprisings, as did the imported guerrilla movements, inspired by communist slogans and ideals of Castroist and Leninist tendencies, which attacked our National Constitution.
These words gave way in his letter to reflect a notorious fact worldwide that today is visible in every space and place: those who voted yesterday for Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro now suffer these consequences.
Hevia Araujo added that these people “today regret the great majority, but the conditions of decomposition, the kidnapping of the public powers and the power that the highly dangerous criminals who make up the government have managed to accumulate, make it almost impossible to peacefully and constitutionally tear down the wall that protects this dangerous regime.”
Through this statement, the former captain also asks Guaidó to “hear the cry of a suffering people. Interpret the feeling and the aspirations to see our homeland free, while it today suffers severely from the deadly effects of this global pandemic, highlighted above all by the brutal shortage of medicines.”
The letter closes by saying that Guaidó has not been able to capitalize on compact support from the Venezuelan Armed Forces despite the desertions of 270 active military personnel that began on February 23, 2019, and the rebellion on April 30 of that same year.
Currently, the Venezuelan military branch is committed to the objectives of Nicolás Maduro and his current Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López.
In response, Hevia Araujo demanded the following: “Enough of waiting for the annihilation process to continue every day in a country that became one of the most solid economies in the world, the third country with the largest oil, gas, and gold reserves, and where its citizens earned one of the highest monthly incomes in the world. Don’t let them finish destroying it.”