The Maduro regime took its support of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega to new heights in comments made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza on the ongoing protests in that country.
Arreaza, who was in Managua yesterday celebrating the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista victory over the Zomosa regime, spoke at an event commemorating the day. During his speech, Arreaza said that Venezuela would help “defend the sovereignty” of Nicaragua were Ortega to ask for assistance, and suggested that this assistance could come in the shape of fighters.
Arreaza said:
Know this, president Daniel Ortega: If the Bolivarian people, the Venezuelan revolutionaries, had to come to Nicaragua to defend Nicaraguan sovereignty and independence, to offer our blood for Nicaragua, we would do so as Sandio did [when he went to] the mountain of Nueva Segovia.
In his comment, Arreaza referenced Augusto Cesar Sandino, the Nicaraguan revolutionary leader whose guerrila campaign against United States forces in the country began in 1927 with the takeover of U.S.-owned mines in Nueva Segovia.
The Maduro regime is just one of a handful of governments that have spoken out in support of Ortega’s brutal repression of protests, along with Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Cuba’s Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Just two days ago, the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a condemnation of the Nicaraguan government’s brutal repression of the protests, and called on Ortega to agree to an electoral calendar to set up presidential elections in the near future. The resolution containing the condemnation was approved by 21 of the region’s countries.
Only Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela voted against the resolution.
Spurred by widespread corruption and the attempt to introduce an unpopular set of social security reforms, the protests in Nicaragua have been taking place since April of this year. At least 360 people have been killed in the violence, as regime forces and paramilitaries have responded to the demonstrations with unrestrained lethal force.
Pensioners Cap Week of Protests
Seniors in Caracas ended the workweek as they began it: protesting against the fact that the Maduro regime is no longer giving them the pensions that they are entitled to.
The Venezuelan government is supposed to give pensioners Bs. 8,400,000 per month. However, El Nacional reports that when the July payment was made this past Wednesday, pensioners received only Bs. 2,000,000, or 55 cents at the current black market rate (Bs. 3,619,833.20/USD).
Below, an image of a group of seniors congregated outside of a bank on the Urdaneta Avenue of Caracas earlier this morning:
Seniors have been protesting in Caracas all week demanding an immediate remedy to their pension woes.
The video below shows protesters forcing National Guard soldiers to withdraw from the vicinity of their demonstration on the Fuerzas Armadas avenue of Caracas on Wednesday:
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