Communist dictator of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega offered to send “Sandinista combatants” to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro should a “counter-revolution” begin Venezuela against him.
Ortega made his offer on Monday evening during the latest online gathering of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) or simply “ALBA,” a regional far-left “anti-imperialist” trade bloc founded by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez in December 2004. Over the past 20 years, the original two-country group expanded to include other leftist-led Latin American and Caribbean countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Dominica, among others. Iran is one of the group’s “observer” members alongside Syria and Haiti.
ALBA’s latest gathering centered around providing support to Maduro following the July 28 sham presidential election, which Maduro and the Venezuelan institutions he firmly controls insist he “won.” The nation’s electoral authorities have refused to publish voter data that can corroborate the dictator’s alleged victory, while the opposition has published election results obtained from local voting centers that show Maduro losing in a landslide. Last week, the Venezuelan Supreme Court — loyal to Maduro — ruled to uphold the dictator’s “victory.”
Maduro’s attempts to cling to power through fraudulent means sparked nationwide protests in Venezuela that the ruling socialists responded to with a brutal crackdown and persecution campaign. At press time, humanitarian groups have confirmed 25 deaths and the arbitrary detention of more than 2,400 individuals, including more than 120 minors, in the ensuing crackdown. Maduro regime officials have publicly denied any responsibility in the deaths.
During the online gathering on Monday, Ortega warned Maduro that he should not “discard” a civil war scenario in Venezuela similar to that occurring in Nicaragua’s during the 1980s. Ortega accused Colombia and the United States of preparing to meddle in the hypothetical civil war.
“I want to alert Nicolás [Maduro] – and I am sure that you have already thought about it, analyzed it and are prepared, since they [the Venezuelan opposition] have already failed in this maneuver [reverse the election’s “results”],” Ortega said, “and there is no turning back, there is no turning back that Nicolás is the legitimate president – they may now resort to arms, as happened in the Central American country.”
The communist dictator claimed the purported “counter-revolution” to Maduro’s regime could be staged in neighboring Colombia, which shares much of its eastern border with Venezuela, and that it would be prepared at American military bases in the country.
Ortega claimed that he does not see Colombia’s far-left President Gustavo Petro “feeding” a “mercenary army” against the Maduro regime, but asserted that he sees former Colombian presidents such as Álvaro Uribe Velez and Iván Duque doing so.
“There [in Colombia] there are Yankee military bases and, therefore, do not rule that out, because imperialism today is more wounded than ever by this victory [in Venezuela],” Ortega said. “do not rule out that they organize an armed counter-revolution, like the ones they organized against us during the first Sandinista government.”
Ortega continued with his “warning” by claiming that a battle in Venezuela “would be much bigger” than the one in Nicaragua, because, according to him, it would involve “the Colombian Army, Colombian mercenaries, Colombian assassins, Colombian drug traffickers.” The Nicaraguan dictator advised Maduro to “get ready to give battle and defeat them, because I am sure that if that battle is given they will defeat them.”
“And you can be sure that if that battle comes, you will have Sandinista fighters accompanying you in that battle,” Ortega said. “And I am sure that just as thousands of [foreign] fighters joined the battle of Nicaragua against [Anastasio] Somoza, thousands of Latin American and Caribbean fighters will also join the defense of the Bolivarian revolution.”
The online ALBA gathering concluded with a nine-point statement in support of Maduro, praising him for the “work and leadership” at the head of Venezuela. The statement also denounced “the failure to recognize the official results of the electoral process by a violent and fascist sector of the Venezuelan opposition,” and welcomed the Venezuelan top court’s ruling to uphold Maduro’s fraudulent victory.
The bloc also demanded that the international community “respect the sovereignty, self-determination and democratic will of the Venezuelan people.”
“We regret the decision of some governments to question the electoral results in Venezuela and to promote resolutions and statements that do not reflect the reality of the country,” the statement’s fifth point read. “It is essential that all States recognize the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and work together to foster dialogue and constructive cooperation instead of fuelling divisions.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
