Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has slammed the major damage caused to Venezuela over recent months of opposition violence, comparing the right-wing protesters to the white supremacists in the United States who organised violent and deadly protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12.
Speaking at a media conference on August 22, Maduro deplored how “fascist groups” attacked people based on their observable ethnic characteristics — in the United States and Venezuela.
“When I see the images from Charlottesville, I say, ‘I hope the people of the United States will be saved from fascist hate’,” he said. “Because in Venezuela, 29 people were set on fire only because they were perceived to be Chavistas, or because of the colour of their skin — like mine, mestizo, Black, or by their social position of seeming to be poor.”
Maduro accused the foreign-backed elements of trying to roll back the gains achieved by the people of Venezuela as part of the Bolivarian Revolution, especially those that benefit the most marginalised.
Maduro spoke of the consequences of “four months of violence, of human damage, with more than 100 dead, more than 2000 injured”, in which Venezuela has suffered “material damage ... hospitals, schools, libraries, urban living centres were attacked.”
“More than 500 buses were burnt ... More than 30 large shops, which are administered by the CLAP [Local Food Production and Provision Committees, grassroots bodies that distribute food to the poor], were looted and burnt,” he added.
Maduro noted the hypocrisy of global media outlets that have remained silent about the well-documented and widely reported hate crimes committed by the opposition. “Of course, since it was the right and the anti-Chavistas that did it, they kept it quiet,” he said.
[Abridged from TeleSUR English.]