Retired army General Angel Vivas sported a flak jacket, assault rifle and handgun as he defiantly addressed dozens of neighbours from the balcony of his home in eastern Caracas.
“I’m not going to surrender,” the 57-year-old Gen Vivas yelled to a crowd of cheering followers.
Supporters rushed to Gen Vivas’ defence after he announced to his 100,000-plus followers on Twitter that a group of “Cuban and Venezuelan henchmen” had come looking for him. The officers withdrew after the crowd built barricades outside Gen Vivas’ house. Gen Vivas’ lawyer said they didn’t have an arrest order.
Mr Maduro on Saturday ordered Gen Vivas’ arrest for allegedly encouraging students to stretch wire across streets where they’ve set up barricades in recent weeks. The president blames the apparent booby trap for the death of a government supporter who raced into a barricade on a motorcycle.
Gen Vivas, one of the government’s fiercest critics in the frequently vicious world of Venezuelan social media, rose to prominence in 2007 when he resigned as head of the Defence Ministry’s engineering department rather than order his subalterns to swear to the Cuban-inspired oath “Fatherland, socialism or death.”
Thanks for your translation.
There’s some reporting from AP on this along with a photo
but from what I understand we can’t use their material.
Perhaps someone could put the photo of the armed general standing on the roof of his house up in this thread.
Viva General Vivas!
Big Stump Maduro is pushing it too far. He’s likely to join up with his beloved ‘El Commandante Hugo’ if he keeps this iron moustache routine up. Chavez post mortem afterglow has faded from red to black and the dumb leftist log ain’t he.
“The president blames the apparent booby trap for the death of a government supporter who raced into a barricade on a motorcycle.”
The antigovernment protesters have had a legitimate problem with murderous motorcyclist marauders killing people as they drove by. The barrier wire stops that game! El president must be pissed that the tables are turned on him. Utopianists(my phrase...”U-toap-ee-ann-ists” with emphasis on the “ann””) are stubborn and just won’t give up on collectivist utopian notions. Like Jim Jones, they would take the whole world down into hell with them if they could!