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class="header"> <font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11989">http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11989</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Mass Civic-Military Mobilisations in
Venezuela Warn Against Intervention</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">By Rachael Boothroyd
Rojas</div>
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<p>Caracas, May 23rd 2016 (<a
data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=es&q=http://venezuelanalysis.com&source=gmail&ust=1464178385343000&usg=AFQjCNF8clS38IA6fZjHT8RzLWP8lclUyQ"
target="_blank" href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/">venezuelanalysis.com</a>)
- More than half a million soldiers and <span>civilian
militia members</span> took to the streets of
Venezuela over the weekend to defend their national
sovereignty amidst rumours of international intervention
and an unconventional coup. </p>
<p>Entitled Full Independence II 2016, the drills saw
troops, military boats and planes deployed to seven
coastal states in Venezuela on Friday and Saturday after
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called on the
military to rally around the defence of the country’s
Constitution in the face of foreign aggression. </p>
<p>The head of state said that “the decision to combat and
defend this land at the cost of our own lives” should
send a “very clear message to the empires of the
world”. </p>
<p>“The people of Venezuela is the only owner of this
land, never again will it be somebody’s slave or
colony,” he added. </p>
<p>During the exercises, Venezuelan Defence Minister,
Padrino Lopez, also called on Venezuelans to sign up to
the militia set up by former President Hugo Chavez in
2007 as a civilian-led armed body <span>parallel to the
army. </span></p>
<p>According to comments made by General César Vega, there
are currently 340,000 militia members operating
throughout the country.</p>
<p>Last weekend’s military exercises take place amidst a
tense atmosphere in Venezuela, where the political
opposition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) has
vowed to remove Maduro before 2017 through a
constitutional recall referendum. The manoeuvre would
mean cutting the president’s term short by over two
years. </p>
<p>Despite MUD plans for a recall, however, earlier this
month former Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, infamous
Venezuelan blogger Francisco del Toro, and former
presidential candidate and MUD leader, Henrique Capriles
Radonski, all came out in support of a coup against the
Maduro government. </p>
<p>The comments have led to heavy speculation both inside
Venezuela and abroad that forces in opposition to the
government could seek an unconstitutional route to oust
Maduro before the year is up. </p>
<p>Russian Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs Sergéi Ryabkov
and even the Pope recently waded into the debate last
week, warning against “soft” or constitutional coups in
Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil and foreign
destabilisation. </p>
<p>“We see a new intensification in the foreign policy of
the United States in that area, even direct attempts to
interfere in the domestic affairs of states in the
region… Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela are just the most
recent examples,” <a
data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=es&q=https://www.rt.com/op-edge/343439-dilma-rosseff-brazil-russia/&source=gmail&ust=1464178385343000&usg=AFQjCNGqTxIcJSa_JZuFoYtbYCgPjXemWg"
target="_blank"
href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/343439-dilma-rosseff-brazil-russia/">said
Ryabkov from Moscow.</a></p>
<p>Meanwhile leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales also
sent his support to the embattled Venezuelan head of
state over the weekend, after arriving in Caracas from
Havana. </p>
<p class="published">Published on May 24th 2016 at 8.13am
</p>
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