Maduro Calls Up Reserve Troops for New Maneuvers

HAVANA TIMES – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called on the reserve of the country’s Military Police, the Bolivarian National Guard, to carry out new exercises less than 24 hours before an international ultimatum expires to declare new elections in the Latin American country, reported Europa Press.

Also on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans are taking to the streets in demonstrations called by the opposition and the government, in what is predicted to be a day of extreme tension in the country.

According to a letter from the commander of the Venezuelan Army, Major General Jesus Suarez Chourio, picked up by the media ‘El Estímulo’, these maneuvers will aim at “the retraining of military personnel”.

President Maduro has taken advantage of every visit and meeting with members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces to ask for the defense of sovereignty in the face of what he has repeatedly described as an attempted coup against him led by the president of the opposition National Assembly, Juan Guaido.

Maduro, has described the Bolivarian National Armed Forces as “the backbone of the integrity of the nation” and has urged its members, as well as those of the Bolivarian National Guard, to reject the amnesty proposed by the opponent Juan Guaido, because they are not “delinquents”.

Maduro, who has supervised military maneuvers, has defended the role of the military as “a central element for peace in the nation”, within the framework of “a struggle that has victory as its destiny”. “We are facing the greatest political, diplomatic and economic aggression that Venezuela has faced in 200 years,” he warned in his speech.

Maduro, who has recriminated the “US empire” and the “old colonial powers of Europe” who want to “put their hands to political power” in Venezuela, has been confident of winning this “historic battle.”