Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday that next Christmas will begin in October. Hours after the Attorney General ordered the arrest of opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia for crimes related to terrorism and in the midst of a deep political crisis, the Chavista leader took advantage of the broadcast of his television program to announce a change in the calendar of festivities in the Caribbean country. “It is September and it already smells like Christmas, it smells like Christmas. And that is why this year, in homage to you, in gratitude to you, I am going to decree the advancement of Christmas to October 1,” the president said.
Hugo Chavez’s successor addressed his supporters, recalling the massive blackout that last Friday affected around 80% of Venezuelan territory. The authorities attributed the collapse of the electrical system to sabotage by their adversaries orchestrated from abroad. “The criminal electrical attack stopped the economy. They couldn’t. People continued working, laboring, and with the support of the working class, in perfect civic-military-police union, we guaranteed absolute peace. The recovery, in record time, from one of the deadliest blows ever attempted against the electrical generation system,” he said.
Maduro insisted: “Christmas starts on October 1. For everyone, Christmas has arrived, with peace, happiness and security.” During the weeks leading up to the December holidays, the Chavista government usually intensifies the distribution of aid and food bags in the neighborhoods, including hams that in the worst years of the economic crisis became the most anticipated product in the boxes of the so-called Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP). Already in 2020, the Bolivarian leader announced the beginning of the festivities on October 15 and the following year he brought it forward to the 4th of the same month.
Just after Christmas, Maduro is scheduled to take office for his third term on January 10. That is the day that the new period begins based on the official results of the July 28 elections released by the National Electoral Council, for which the authorities have not presented evidence. The opposition, led by María Corina Machado and González Urrutia, flatly rejects these numbers and refuted them with the publication of the minutes compiled by its witnesses or polling station inspectors. Despite political and judicial persecution, the anti-Chavez alliance promises to maintain the pressure and hopes that, starting in January, the main bodies of the international community will not recognize the mandate.
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