Caracas.- Hundreds of Chavistas gathered this Sunday in downtown Caracas in a “great march” to demand the freedom of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, detained in the US, after forces from that country carried out an attack in Caracas and other states of the South American country the day before.
With Venezuelan flags in hand and some of them dressed in white, the Chavistas denounced what they call the “kidnapping” of the president and the first lady, while launching slogans in defense of the “revolution” and the “independence” of their country. In the demonstration, several pro-government leaders are participating, such as Pedro Infante, first vice president of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), magistrate Tania Díaz, and the daughter of the deceased ruler Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), Rosa Inés Chávez, president of the National Institute of Parks of Venezuela (Inparques). The Chavistas announced on Saturday, after the attack, that they would remain in the streets “permanently” and hundreds of them gathered in nearby areas of the Miraflores presidential palace, in the center of the Venezuelan capital, where the headquarters of the public powers are also located. Meanwhile, other areas of Caracas began to regain the normality of daily life with some shops open, after a Saturday of tense calm, empty streets and little traffic.You may be interested in: “We will get through this, the president will return”: message from Maduro’s son after his capture in Venezuela
Maduro was captured in a Washington lightning operation dubbed ‘Absolute Resolution’ along with his wife, and then transferred to New York, where he spent his first night confined in the federal prison Metropolitan Detention Center of Brooklyn.
The Chavista leader, formally accused in 2020 by the Southern District of New York’s Attorney’s Office, will face federal court charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, and crimes related to automatic weapons. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered, on Saturday night, Vice President and Minister of Hydrocarbons, Delcy Rodríguez, to assume as interim president of the South American country.
