Opponents call for “stronger” international action against Maduro

Various Venezuelan opponents They asked the international community on Tuesday for “more forceful actions” against the Government of Nicholas Maduro, days after the dismantling of a gang dedicated to smuggling gasoline and another to drug trafficking, made up of members of the ruling party.

Former opposition deputy Gaby Arellano called for “taking firm action” against the Venezuelan government authorities, whom she accused of “using the territory as a sanctuary for criminals, where they create plans to destabilize the entire hemisphere,” she detailed in a statement.

For his part, José Luis Pirela, also an opponent, considered that the arrests of two mayors, former prosecutors and a deputy of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) during an operation against drug and fuel trafficking called “Iron Hand” show “an enlarged photograph of the moral decomposition that Venezuela is experiencing and the spheres of power.”

He argued that the Maduro government “wants to wash its face by distancing itself from the Chavista officials involved.”

Hours earlier, the opposition leader Juan Guaidó assured that the recent arrests of several public officials linked to Chavismo for alleged corruption and drug trafficking correspond to an “internal invoice pass” by the PSUV.

“The dictatorship takes for granted all the accusations that we have made from the democratic alternative, the investigations carried out and the international community that link them directly to drug trafficking, to terrorism. The dictatorship is in a cartel war and they recognize the accusations of drug trafficking,” said the former deputy, according to a press release.

Last Friday, the Venezuelan authorities arrested the mayor of the Jesús María Semprúm municipality, Keyrineth Fernández, as well as the deputy Taína González, along with three other people, in an operation against drug trafficking, the National Anti-Drug Superintendence (Sunad) indicated at the time. .

The day after, the Oil Minister, Tareck El Aissami, reported that the mayor of the Independencia municipality, in the central Anzoátegui state, Carlos Rafael Vidal, also a Chavista, and the commander of the Third Company of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) were arrested. , Militarized Police) in the town, Antonio José Barrios, and the superior prosecutor of Bolívar state, Manuel Gil Da Silva.