Caracas Venezuela.- Two retired Venezuelan captains called on the Armed Forces to intervene in the situation Venezuela is facing due to the lack of “independent public powers” that guarantee governability.
“It is urgent and necessary that we, the military, be called upon to resolve the conflict, because it is evident that in Venezuela at this moment there are no independent public powers to sustain governability,” said Javier and Juan Carlos Nieto Quintero, members of the Batalla de Mosquitero and Batalla de Pinos promotions, in a video.
“There is no doubt that unconventional constitutional measures must be taken.”
The captains pointed out the need to establish a “temporary transition board with a civil-military government board” headed by the person they said won the election, Edmundo González Urrutia.
In the video, they ask members of the Armed Forces to “make the right decisions” and not repress the Venezuelan people who have taken to the streets to protest after last Sunday’s elections in which the National Electoral Council declared the victory of President Nicolás Maduro without presenting the electoral records.
“Today, on the verge of entering a spiral of violence and anarchy, the people are already in the streets and are being repressed, there are even young people dying at the hands of crime,”
“Remember, gentlemen officers, that the weapons of the republic are made to defend and not repress our people.”
At least 12 people have died in protests that have been taking place since yesterday in Caracas and other parts of Venezuela by demonstrators who consider Maduro’s declared victory to be electoral fraud.
The two retired military officers acknowledged the victory of the opposition candidate and called on the Armed Forces to respect the will of the people.
“The will of the sovereign people has been expressed and there is evidence of this. The international community supports it and we must respect it. There is no doubt that we have a new President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces,” they stressed.
Although the video has been circulating on social media, it has not yet been possible to measure its reach.
According to press reports, Juan Carlos Nieto was arrested in 2014 by military intelligence officials eight days after Maduro denounced an alleged coup attempt to overthrow him.
His brother, Javier, was imprisoned for 18 months for allegedly having participated in the entry of paramilitary groups into Venezuela in 2004 to overthrow then-President Hugo Chávez.
They are both out of the country.
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