Nicolás Maduro says that in Venezuela they hired hitmen to attack him

Monday 10th June 2024 11:14 AM

The campaign formally begins on July 4, but Nicolás Maduro is always in electoral mode. The state-run Venezuelan Television (VTV) broadcasts each of the president’s rallies live and announces it with fanfare in their newscasts., with a “let’s go Nico!” -used in old campaigns- as background music. In the commercial breaks, it also presents episodes of Superbigote, a propaganda cartoon that shows Maduro as a superhero with a Superman cape who fights monsters sent by the United States.

(See also: Maduro would have been tempted by the US government (with a blank check) to leave power)

“The serious thing here is that one doesn’t even wonder anymore, no matter how crazy it may seem,” Ignacio Ávalos, director of the NGO, told AFP. Electoral Observatory Venezuelandedicated to monitoring elections in this country.

“There is a monopoly on the use of public media, with programming where there is no room for anything that is not in favor of the government.”

More than 400 private newspapers, radio and television stations have closed, meanwhile, in more than two decades of Chavista governments.including the emblematic television station RCTV, whose signal was replaced by TVES in 2007.

The state propaganda apparatus shows a jovial, talkative Maduro, “protector of the people,” while his administration is the target of accusations of human rights violations and of creating obstacles for the opposition to participate in the elections.

Precisely, now Maduro, without showing evidence, assured in a speech that The opposition has a plan to attack him and has hired hitmen to attack his life.

“They have a group of hitmen, the extreme right […], They have a group of hitmen already in Venezuela, “Looking for me and looking for us to harm us,” said the leader of the regime in a public event.