President Maduro Threatens Intensified Socialism for Venezuela

HAVANA TIMES — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on Sunday for actions to be taken against the country’s independent media for reporting of mass shortages of consumer goods. He warned that continuing the “economic war” against the people would bring on a new stage in the country’s revolution.

The president said he had set a date in October to see if it the “right” end its “economic war” against the people. Otherwise, he said, the country will enter a new phase of the “socialist revolution”, reported dpa news.

“I have set a date in October. If by then we still see pernicious, unconstitutional and illegal actions consisting of psychological terrorism and economic warfare against democracy policy, we will take special measures to take another step in the Bolivarian revolution, another stage in the revolution will come,” he said.

At a ceremony in Caracas with leaders of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Maduro said “we cannot be innocent or weak, since there is a lot at stake in the destiny of the nation.”

“The people know that they have a man (himself) who can be trusted to lead this revolution on the path we must take, always with the Constitution, on a new and rapid new stage. If the war against the people continues, they will see the face of this Constitution and I will summon the people and the Armed Forces to a new stage of socialist revolution. Prepare yourselves for great battles,” he advised.

Maduro claimed that the headlines in the private media cause panic buying and such a growing demand creates the scarcity of consumer goods, experienced for several months.

He stated that the rightwing opposition has prepared a plan so that October is the month of the “total collapse” of the economy, believing that the Bolivarian revolution is in its last days.

“They have drawn on a crazy dynamic, to harm the country. They’ve gone to ‘guerrilla war’ sabotaging electricity power to villages. We’ve been facing this economic war, but now it has a psychological component provided by the newspaper headlines informing what products are going to be absent at the markets,” he said .

Maduro called on the Attorney General Luisa Ortega, to assess “special measures” to punish this “psychological warfare by the print, television and radio media against the people’s food security.”

“There can be no impunity. Such actions aren’t allowed even in the world’s most developed countries. That’s propaganda war,” said Maduro.

“I ask the prosecutor to act sternly against those who continue with the war. In Venezuela there is freedom of expression, but there can be no freedom to destroy the people and make war on them, we cannot accept that,” he added.

Maduro urged his supporters to prepare for October, which he dubbed the month of “combat readiness and revolutionary victory and the month for deployment of popular struggle.”