Above Photo: Rebel soldiers organize two plastic containers, one with bananas and the other full of ammunition, over the Altamira bridge in Caracas during the “banana coup,” when Juan Guaidó, Leopoldo Lopez and other far-right opposition forces organized a coup against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, on April 30, 2019. AP/File photo.
NOTE: It was on this day four years ago that we were awakened, as we slept inside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, with a message that there would be another coup attempt and we needed to watch out for regime change agents who would likely come to the embassy. Around 10:00 that morning, they came with megaphones and sirens with which they hurled insults at us, tried to instigate conflicts and made nonstop noise. Their plan was to “terrorize us out,” as we heard one say. They did not succeed, and we held the embassy for another 17 days until the US government illegally invaded the embassy and arrested us on May 16. – Margaret Flowers
Four Years After Failed ‘Banana Coup’.
Four years after the defeat of the fascist coup attempt, organized by a far-right minority on April 30, 2019, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro stated: “Nothing will disturb the peace of a conscious homeland that’s determined to defend the revolutionary path we are on.”
Through his social media accounts, the head of state recalled the triumph of the people and the authorities who were in perfect civic-military union against an extremist and fascist minority that sought to overthrow the constituted power, which then fled cowardly after its failure.
This Sunday marks the fourth anniversary of the attempted coup by the right wing staged in the Altamira bridge, in Caracas, led by Juan Guaidó with Operation Libertad, which sought to seize power and deceive the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB).
“Four years ago, people mobilized in the streets, in perfect civic-military union with the authorities, and they were able to defeat the fascist coup attempt by an extremist minority that cowardly fled after its failure. Nothing will disturb the peace of a homeland that is conscious and determined to defend the revolutionary path that we are on,” wrote Maduro.
In statements from that time, the Venezuelan president had said: “We have been facing different types of coups like never before in history, due to the disastrous efforts of an opposition group, coupled with imperialism and its obsession to take power in Venezuela.”
He explained that: “The objective was to create a scene by coming with weapons to seek armed confrontation, but they failed because the people want peace, and we have proven that our path is peaceful and permanent victory.”
“Faced with each failed attempt against the social peace of our homeland, the people have always been alert and aware of their leading role in defending the Magna Carta. Thanks to this struggle, today we have a democracy that is increasingly strengthened. We will triumph!” he wrote then.
Cabello: Civil-Military Union Keeps the Peace
In a civic-military-police union, the people of Venezuela continue to live in peace and democracy, and with the same President Nicolás Maduro, while this Sunday, April 30, the fourth anniversary of the triumph of the people, in the face of the 2019 coup attempt staged by far-right groups, was celebrated.
The statement was made by the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, who this Sunday, in the early hours of the morning, together with members of the PSUV, Popular Power and authorities of the Venezuelan state, held an act at the Altamira bridge, on the occasion of the anniversary of another defeat against fascist forces in what ordinary Venezuelans have coined the “banana coup,” because for reasons still unknown, the few soldiers that joined the coup at Altamira bridge had brought plastic containers full of bananas.