READ HERE: Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez has accused the Western-backed opposition of attempting a ‘media coup’, and condemned widespread rioting in the wake of President Nicolas Maduro’s election victory.
Protests erupted after the national electoral authority declared victory for the incumbent president on Monday. Maduro’s opponent Edmundo Gonzalez has claimed he was the rightful winner. He accused the government of vote rigging and urged thousands of his supporters to take to the the streets.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Padrino accused the demonstrators of “acts of sabotage” and destruction of official buildings, including a hundred electoral centers and offices of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
According to the minister, these “expressions of hatred and irrationality” are a part of a “preconceived plan” by US-backed political groups. “But in addition, they involve an attempted media coup d’état, supported in social media and supported by North American imperialism and its external and internal allies,” Padrino said.
”We are witnessing fascism at its maximum expression, of an international structure that is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to discredit the extraordinary demonstration of civility that the Venezuelan people showed on the last election day,” he claimed.