The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, accepted this Saturday to be the candidate of the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) in the July 28 elections, entering a race to extend his power - which he reached in 2013 - for six more years. which would exceed the 14 years of mandate that his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, accumulated.
"I am here for the people, that is why today I accept the presidential candidacy, I accept it, I assume it and, with the support of the people, we will go to a new victory for the Bolivarian and Chavista forces," said the president when receiving the banner of the PSUV in front of thousands of supporters who gathered in Caracas for his proclamation as a candidate.
The flag-bearing ceremony was full of praise for the Chavista leader, whom they described as a patient, peaceful, strategic and anti-imperialist man, as the "worker president" who knew how to keep the so-called Bolivarian revolution afloat when Chávez died in 2013. and despite the political, social and economic tribulations of the last decade.
In a festive atmosphere, the Chavistas sang the catchy proselytizing songs that accompanied Maduro in the 2013 and 2018 elections, to which was added a new sound, in a northern Mexican style, in which the head of state's ability to go "tearing down walls", alluding to international sanctions.
In this regard, Chavismo showed a video that reviews the widespread shortage of food and medicine that occurred between 2015 and 2019, blaming the opposition and the United States for these "very hard times."
"The Government has been our only ally at all times," emphasizes the audiovisual, whose exhibition ended with applause from the followers who gathered at the Poliedro de Caracas, the largest covered capacity in the country, for this activity that was broadcast by all state media.
The 61-year-old president asked his supporters to take care of him during his public events, which have increased in recent days and will become more frequent as the date of the elections approaches, whose formal campaign will take place between the 4th and the 25th. of July.
The ruler makes this request five days after the Prosecutor's Office reported the arrest of two opponents, accused of trying to assassinate Maduro during a rally in the state of Monagas (northeast), where he was last Monday.
"No one is going to take me off the streets, because we are going to the great popular victory of July 28 (...) if you support me, if you protect me, in the year 24 we will triumph again along the path of the truth, of renewed hope," he said.
Both the speeches of the supporters and that of the president himself were marked by allusions to Hugo Chávez, especially to his decision, announced in December 2012, that Maduro would be the one to replace him in the Executive in the event of his death from the cancer that ended with his life in March 2013.
Brothers, cousins, daughters and Chávez's father attended the activity in which the PSUV remembered Maduro's closeness with the considered leader of the Bolivarian revolution, who kept him for six years as chancellor and six months as vice president.
Now, resuming his title as "son" of Chávez, the ruler has called "for combat", without it being yet clear who his opponents will be in the contest, something that will be clarified soon, since the National Electoral Council (CNE) established that Candidates must be submitted between March 21 and 25.
Once again, the official candidate referred to his political adversaries as "oligarchs" and "surnames", alluding to leaders such as former deputy María Corina Machado, elected in primaries as the candidate of the PUD, the main opposition coalition for the presidential elections. , but prevented from competing due to a sanction imposed by the Comptroller's Office.
This sector of the "ultra-right", Maduro assured, "had hatched" the plan to assassinate him, a complaint that he has made on numerous occasions and for which Justice has already prosecuted several people in the past.
"Do not be confused, oligarchs, criminals who want to kill me, do not underestimate us anymore, (...) here the candidate is not Maduro, here the candidate is a people, he is the common man, he is the common woman , it is the people in the neighborhood and, with the people in the neighborhood and on foot, we are going to combat, we are going to battle and we are going to victory," the president concluded.
