The looting law

By Rafael Ramírez
October 4, 2020

The “Anti-Blockade” Law presented by nicolás maduro, for approval by the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), is an UNCONSTITUTIONAL Law designed to HAND OVER COMPANIES AND ASSETS OF THE VENEZUELAN STATE TO THE national and international PRIVATE CAPITAL, by using the excuse of the «blockade.»

Faced with the sanctions and coercive measures, the maduro government, INSTEAD OF REINFORCING THE STATE AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY, proceeds now to PRIVATIZE the public sector -including strategic sectors such as oil- in favor of the government’s private operators, its «agents» and its «revolutionary bourgeoisie» who, under the aegis of this government, have been seizing de facto the economy, assets and companies of the Venezuelan State.

The “anti-blockade” law is an instrument designed to validate the delivery of the country, REVERT THE NATIONALIZATIONS MADE DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ and surrender the management, ownership and assets of our State companies to the private capital.

This delivery, as established by the “Anti-Blockade” Law itself, will occur in the most absolute SECRET. In other words, the government will cede assets of the State, of all Venezuelans, without being accountable to anyone, without knowing what it is about, neither the beneficiaries, nor the terms and conditions thereof; they will be secret operations of great magnitude, a monumental «PIÑATA«.

The aforementioned law, as we will see below, has nothing to do with “the blockade”; it is a law of an eminently economic nature, which is intended exclusively for the process of DENATIONALIZATION of State companies and the delivery of the assets of all Venezuelans.

But, let’s see the content of this Looting Law, in its most relevant articles:

1.   THE «DISAPPLICATION OF LEGAL RULES».

In Chapter II of the Law, it is authorized THE DISMANTLING OF THE LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK of the Republic, through the “disapplication of the laws”:

ARTICLE 17: “…the National Executive will authorize the disapplication of certain legal norms in specific cases”. 

Next, it specifies who will be the «executors» of such legal dismantling and where it is headed.

ARTICLE 18:  «the disapplication provided in the preceding article, will be made after favorable technical report issued by the relevant ministries as per the subject, in which it is conclusive that such disapplication is essential for the macroeconomic proper management and for attracting foreign investment, especially at a large scale…”

Later on, the government insists on reserve its right to «disapply» the Law:

ARTICLE 19: «The disapplication of the rules will be only exercised by the National Executive…”

In these three articles, it is clear that the National Executive, “WILL DISAPPLY”THE LAWS IN FORCE IN THE COUNTRY,  IN ORDER TO HAND OVER THE MANAGEMENT AND THE OWNERSHIP OF OUR ECONOMY TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND THUS “CAPTURE” FOREIGN INVESTMENT.

By speaking of a “large-scale economy”, the government is referring to the oil, to the basic companies, to the food, land, industries, banking and to any strategic sector that is now in the hands of the State.

It is the dismantling or «disapplication» of the economic sovereignty, it is the denationalization.

However, it turns out that the «disapplication» of laws is a faculty established in article 334 of the Constitution, a faculty which ONLY CORRESPONDS TO THE JUDGES OF THE REPUBLIC and applies ONLY WHEN A LEGAL RULE COLLIDES WITH THE CONSTITUTION OR VIOLATES A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT.

Going against the Constitution, the government INSISTS in this Law that “only they” can “disapply” the laws of the Republic.

Neither the government nor its ministers can «disapply» laws; this is a power that, as we saw, corresponds only to the Judicial Power. Furthermore, the government needs the approval of the National Assembly, when it comes to legislating, modifying or repealing a law.

The government cannot ignore or evade the legal and constitutional mechanisms, the control mechanisms ESTABLISHED TO PRESERVE THE RIGHTS AND THE COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE, as well as the transparency of public management, of the State affairs.

Under no consideration can the government evade or «disapply» the current Constitution. Otherwise, we are before a COUP D’ETAT.

2.           «ALL BUSINESSES».

The government opens the doors for committing crimes against the national interest and for the seizing of assets and companies of the Venezuelan State.

ARTICLE 22: «…the celebration of all legal acts or businesses is authorized…without prejudice to the provisions of Article 303 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.»

The government decides to negotiate the Homeland assets and to celebrate «all legal acts and deals«, unaware that THERE IS A LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK THAT PROTECTS THE REPUBLIC FROM THE DISPOSAL OF ITS HERITAGE. This law «authorizes» looting.

The Law establishes that it will act «without prejudice to article 303 of the Constitution.» But, why is this nationalist outburst? Let’s see what this article says:

Article 303: “For reasons of economic and political sovereignty and national strategy, the State shall retain all shares of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. or the organ created to manage the petroleum industry, with the exception of subsidiaries, strategic joint ventures, business enterprises and any other venture established or coming in the future to be established as a consequence of the carrying on of the business of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.»

The government mentions that it will respect precisely the only article of the Constitution that left the door open to the privatization of PDVSA (a blunder of the 1999 Constituent Assembly) and that President Chávez proposed to change in the 2006 Reform. Because of its isolated reading, and an accommodative and unrelated interpretation of Article 302 of the same Constitution, the article seems to open the possibility of privatizing the subsidiaries and other companies of PDVSA.

Let’s see what will happen to PDVSA and its more than 327 affiliated companies if article 303 is interpreted in isolation and outside the spirit, purpose and reason of the ’99 Constituent Assembly, as this article of the Looting Law intends to do. If that were the case, then the following PDVSA subsidiaries could be privatized:

1. PDVSA Petróleo, which is the company that handles all oil and gas production, refining and commercialization of hydrocarbons in the country;
2. The Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation (CVP), created to manage the Mixed Companies, those companies that are constituted with majority shareholding and control of PDVSA;
3. The Mixed Companies, where PDVSA -in accordance with the provisions of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law and the Decree 5200 of Nationalization of the [Orinoco Oil] Belt- has a majority shareholding and effective control of operations;
4. The same fate will befall the other companies and subsidiaries of PDVSA: PDVSA Servicios Petroleros, PDVSA Naval and more besides; there are 327 companies and subsidiaries of PDVSA that, according to the unconstitutional interpretation of the Looting Law, will be delivered.

The government WILL LEAVE PDVSA AS AN EMPTY SHELL, 100% OWNED BY THE STATE, while PRIVATIZES THE SUBSTANTIVE SUBSIDIARIES AND STATE OPERATORS THAT GUARANTEE NATIONAL OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OVER THE OIL.

That is why the government DO NOT DARE to mention that it will act “without prejudice” to the provisions of Article 302 of the Constitution. This article, A FUNDAMENTAL PILLAR OF SOVEREIGNTY, and which the government “forgot to mention”, establishes:

Article 302: “The State reserves to itself, through the pertinent organic law, and for reasons of national expediency, the petroleum industry and other industries, operations and goods and services which are in the public interest and of a strategic nature…”

So, it is not as the government intends, in article 22 of the so-called “Anti-blockade” Law, that it can carry out “all legal acts or businesses” it wants. No, ARTICLE 302 PUTS A LIMIT ON THE GOVERNMENT. 

THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS OF THE REPUBLIC IMPOSE LIMITS AND RESTRICTIONS TO PRESERVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST, THE GENERAL INTEREST OF ALL VENEZUELANS, AND TO PROTECT THE COUNTRY JUST FROM SUCH LAWS.

The government cannot extract and take the articles of the Constitution that suit it best. THE CONSTITUTION MUST BE SEEN IN AN INTEGRAL WAY, ALL ITS ARTICLES ARE ACCORDING TO ITS PRINCIPLES, VALUES AND FOUNDATIONS CONSECRATED IN ITS PREAMBLE.

Articles 302 and 303 of the Constitution must be observed jointly and in accordance with the rest of its articles (among others, with Article 11 that establishes the Sovereignty over the subsoil, and Article 12 that grants the character of public domain property to oil fields), especially when in oil and mining matters the reserve made by the State not only has to do with property, it also has to do with operation and control, because it is a matter of sovereignty and integrity territorial.

3. «THE SUITABILITY OF THE COMPANIES FOR THEIR DELIVERY»

For the handover of State companies to private companies, the government must strip workers of their rights, wages, social benefits, and savings funds, as well as stripping companies of any vestige of social responsibility and subordination to the Venezuelan State, that is, to the general interest of the country. For this reason, the Law establishes:

Article 23: “… The National Executive may proceed to the organization and reorganization of decentralized entities for business purposes inside and outside the country, in order to modernize and adapt them to the mechanisms of commercial practice of International Private Law…”

As part of this “adaptation” mentioned by the Looting Law, any subordination of companies and assets to the laws of the Republic is eliminated, violating the Economic and Jurisdictional Sovereignty over them.

THE GOVERNMENT REPEALS OR «DISAPPLICATES» THE LEGAL ORDER OF THE REPUBLIC TO «ADAPT» ITSELF TO THE JURIDICAL ORDER OF TRANSNATIONAL CAPITALISM, that is, to the «mechanisms of the commercial practice of International Private Law«.

But as the government is going towards a total surrender of the companies, then it has to AFFECT THE OWNERSHIP RELATIONSHIPS, that is, it will hand over the OWNERSHIP of these assets and State companies to the private sector, as it is established in its article 24:

Article 24: «The National Executive may modify the mechanisms of constitution, ownership, management, administration and operation of public or mixed companies, both in the national territory and abroad …”

The central objective of this Law is set out in this: OWNERSHIP.

They are going to modify the mechanisms of constitution, ownership, management and operation of state companies; in particular, of the subsidiaries and companies of PDVSA, leaving it as an empty shell, 100% owned by the State, but WITHOUT its subsidiaries and substantive companies.

PDVSA will remain as the «CONTRACT ADMINISTRATOR AGENCY», as established in the privatization plan of the «Alí Rodríguez Araque Commission«, which we denounced on April 30^th.

In accordance with this Article 22, in the oil business area will be eliminated the conditions established by the Organic Hydrocarbons Law, which limit the participation of private parties in activities reserved to the State in accordance with Article 302 of the Constitution.

Some of the conditions that will be disapplied are: the State ownership of oil; the subjection of oil operators to the Petroleum Policy and to the laws of the Republic; the subordination of PDVSA to the Venezuelan State; the majority shareholding and control of PDVSA over the Mixed Companies; the State ownership of all PDVSA facilities and assets; the control of oil marketing; the oil tax regime, taxes, royalties, pricing, among others.

4. «PROMOTING PRIVATE INVESTMENT» OR THE REVERSAL OF PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ’S NATIONALIZATIONS.

The maduro government has been dismantling State companies for the last 7 years, attacking them and their workers; it has destroyed them, plunged them into chaos, bankrupted them: PDVSA, Corpoelec [the National Power Company], the Basic Industries [Iron, Steel, Aluminum], CANTV [Phone and Telecommunications company], Hydrological Companies, transportation, all of them; not one escaped from the predatory action of madurism.

All of this has CREATED THE POLITICAL AND SUBJECTIVE CONDITIONS TO CONSUMMATE ONE OF THE GREATEST CRIMES AGAINST THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY AND THE LEGACY OF PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ EMBODIED IN THE “PLAN DE LA PATRIA”, THE “PLAN FOR THE HOMELAND”: THE REVERSION OF THE NATIONALIZATIONS OF FUNDAMENTAL SECTORS, OF KEY AND STRATEGIC SECTORS OF OUR ECONOMY.

Article 27 of this Looting Law is presented under the title of «promotion of private investment«:

Article 27: «The National Executive may authorize and implement measures that stimulate and favor the participation, management and partial or comprehensive operation of the national and international private sector in the development of the national economy.

When said measures imply the management or operation of assets that are under the administration of the Venezuelan State as a consequence of some restrictive administrative or judicial measure of any of the elements of the property… trying to prioritize their participation in the respective alliance or through agreements with the State for the restitution of its assets when this implies the prompt putting into production of said assets through a duly supported plan”. 

In this article IT IS DELIVERED TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR THOSE ASSETS, ACTIVITIES AND COMPANIES THAT WERE NATIONALIZED DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ IN HIS REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT.

This includes the main demand of big capital: the oil sector, the return the Orinoco Oil Belt to the transnational companies and private operators that obtained it illegally during the “Apertura Petrolera”, the Oil Opening, the return to the private sector of the activities and companies that had been nationalized in the framework of the Full Oil Sovereignty [policy].

WITH THIS LAW, MADURO WILL DELIVER TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR EVERYTHING THAT COST US SO MUCH SACRIFICE, WORK AND EFFORT TO RECOVER FOR THE COUNTRY; EVERYTHING THAT COST US THE APRIL 11^th, 2002 COUP, THE 2002-2003 OIL SABOTAGE, THE INTERNATIONAL TRIALS, THE INTERNATIONAL AGGRESSION: OIL AND ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY.

But they will not only reverse the nationalizations and sovereignty of the oil sector, they will do the same with basic industries, electricity, services, water, transportation, agro-industries and land. With this Law, they are giving up the property of the State over the pillars of the economy, those which President Chávez was referring to when he coined the phrase: “we have a Homeland”

5. «GUARANTEES TO INVESTORS» AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION

In an action of subordination to the transnational capital, the Looting Law grants more “guarantees” and “protection” to the capital that will attend the auction of the country, while THE JURISDICTIONAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE COUNTRY IS WAIVED BY ESTABLISHING THE FIGURE OF THE “INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION OF INVESTMENTS”, as they did in the “Law of Foreign Investments” approved by the CNA on December 29^th, 2017.

These unconstitutional actions are reflected in the following article of the Looting Law:

Article 31: “The Republic and its entities may agree with their partners and investors, for the contractually established term, clauses for the protection of their investment, in order to generate trust and stability. 

Provided that available domestic judicial remedies have been exhausted and previously agreed upon, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela may participate and make use of other dispute resolution mechanisms…” 

The government knows that this Law is invalid as it is unconstitutional, it knows that its decisions lack legitimacy and credibility; that’s why it uses the most aggressive capital, the most rapacious one; that’s why it resorts to its personal «agents» and operators, and hand them over «the crown jewel»: the oil. The government delivers everything it can, promises protection and guarantees investments.

This is the return of the same «investment guarantees» from the Oil Opening, from the Fourth Republic; it is THE RECIPE FOR LOOTING, from the neoliberal party: Pinochet, Videla, Menem, Uribe, all of them have done the same.

The government gives guarantees to transnational capitalism, while it is not able to ensure the rights of the Venezuelan people, their Fundamental Rights, a dignified life, a Homeland.

The renunciation of jurisdictional sovereignty is also part of the recipe for surrender, for looting. maduro nullifies our laws and our courts. IN THE FACE OF ANY DISPUTE OR CLAIM, THE INVESTORS WILL NOT APPEAL TO OUR COURTS, THEY WILL DO SO BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION COURTS.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT ARBITRATION IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND IS A VIOLATION OF JURISDICTIONAL SOVEREIGNTY; IT WAS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED IN ALL THE OIL CONTRACTS SIGNED DURING OUR MANAGEMENT DURING THE PRESIDENT CHÁVEZ GOVERNMENT.

International arbitration was accepted by the Venezuelan State during the disastrous Oil Opening of the 1990s, and these clauses have brought us before international arbitration tribunals in our disputes with large oil transnationals, such as Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips; disputes we came out gracefully and successfully, thanks to the work and commitment of our political-legal team in the Ministry of Petroleum when we were in charge.

But, while we, from the Ministry of Petroleum, expressly forbid this type of arbitration mechanisms, IN THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY WERE SIGNED AGREEMENTS AND INVESTMENT TREATIES THAT INCLUDED THE ARBITRATION. This is the reason why a significant number of companies (mining, industrial and of any kind) have taken the Republic in these 7 years of maduro government to international courts and have managed to confiscate and freeze assets of the Republic abroad.

The government justifies a law like this one to “face foreign sanctions and aggressions”, while it contemplates in its Article 31 INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT ARBITRATION, ONE OF THE INSTRUMENTS BY EXCELLENCE OF THE GREAT CAPITAL TO ACT AGAINST DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND OWNERS OF NATURAL RESOURCES, VIOLATING THEIR SOVEREIGNTY.

6.    SECRECY TO PERPETRATE THE GREATEST PILLAGE OF THE NATION.

Under Chapter III of the Looting Law, it is developed an article that establishes the SECRECY as a norm of application, contravening what the Constitution establishes in its Article 150, referring to PUBLIC DISCUSSION, DISCLOSURE AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF CONTRACTS OF PUBLIC INTEREST, that is, those which involve activities or sectors reserved for the State or those which are of strategic importance and public interest, such as oil.

In this Section, the Law establishes that these operations that affect companies and assets throughout the country must be carried out in the most absolute SECRET, in violation, among others, of Articles 141 and 143 of the Constitution.

That is, THE GOVERNMENT IS WILLING TO DELIVER THE ASSETS OF ALL VENEZUELANS, TO MAKE COMMITMENTS ON OUR BEAHLF TO PRIVATE OPERATORS, AND IS NOT EVEN ALLOWING THE COUNTRY TO LEARN ABOUT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, BENEFICIARIES, COMMITTED SECTORS, AMOUNTS PURCHASED, NOTHING AT ALL

It will be the greatest act of corruption in history, from a government that has already proven to be quite corrupt and unscrupulous, where private operators, friends, agents and relatives of the top crowd that govern the country will seize companies, assets and resources of the State, of the entire country, without anyone knowing, or controlling the operations, and ensuring compliance with the Law.

maduro acts like a dictator who breaks down and gives away the country as if it were his property. Let’s see the articles of the Law:

Article 34: «…The highest authorities of the organs and entities of the National Public Administration…may grant the nature of reserved, confidential or of limited disclosure to any file, document, information, fact or circumstance that in compliance with their functions they are knowing while applying this Constitutional Law…»

«…Each separate body that contains confidential or reserved documentation must contain on its cover the corresponding warning, expressing the restriction on access and disclosure, and the responsibilities that may arise for those officials or people who may violate the respective regime”. 

The law grants public officials a power that they do not have, which is unconstitutional: YOU CANNOT HIDE INFORMATION RELATED TO SENSITIVE OR STRATEGIC MATTERS THAT ARE DEFINED AS OF PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE CONSTITUTION; even more so when it comes to contracts of national interest, to acts that must be controlled by the National Assembly and the Judiciary Power.

Thus it is violated and infringed the Transparency Principle that must govern the action of the Public Administration, the obligation of accountability, the principle of responsibility in the exercise of the public function, and the principle of administrative rationality and reasonableness. Also, Articles 141, 143, 150, 187, 222 et seq. of the Constitution, among others, are violated.

This unconstitutional power of SECRECY in the application of this Law will become the greatest concealment of vital information for the country, to which all citizens have the right to access. The control bodies of the National Executive, the control bodies of public management, the National Assembly, the Judiciary Power have to be aware of these operations that compromise the economy, heritage and sovereignty of the country.

YOU CANNOT GOVERN BEHIND THE BACKS OF THE PEOPLE, OBLIVIOUS TO THE COUNTRY, HIDING INFORMATION, REPEALING LAWS, VIOLATING THE COUNTRY’S SOVEREIGNTY AND THE CONSTITUTION, SEIZING THE HERITAGE OF THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE.

The Looting Law criminalizes compliance with the Constitution, by establishing CRIMINAL SANCTIONS for the officer who complies with his/her constitutional obligation to inform or disclose to the country the terms and conditions of contracts (of public and national interest) that are fundamental for the economy and sovereignty.

The government conceals its operations in the most absolute secrecy, threatening with imprisoning the officers who fulfill their duty to INFORM THE COUNTRY OF WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE STATE, OF THE PUBLIC FINANCE.

Articles 35 and 36 of the Looting Law insist on the secrecy that will surround these operations that involve the patrimony of the country; and it is clear in the threat of imprisonment against officers or citizens who inform the country about what the government does.

Article 35: «Access to documentation that has been classified as confidential or reserved is prohibited… Violation of the transitory regime referred to in this Constitutional Law will be subject to the regime of administrative, civil and criminal responsibilities according to the applicable legal system».

Article 36: «The procedures, acts and records carried out on the occasion of the implementation of any of the measures established in the second chapter of this Constitutional Law, which imply the disapplication of norms of legal rank, are declared secret and reserved…»

The government wants to assure itself, by the means of threatening people with imprisonment, that the country does not find out about any of the «disapplication» of the law in economic matters, that is, that no one finds out, or reviews, or controls the VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS as established in the articles of this Looting Law.

IT IS VERY SERIOUS AND IRREGULAR AND ABSOLUTELY ILLEGAL THE ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT, ITS PRETENSION TO HAND OVER THE COUNTRY’S ASSETS, COMPANIES AND STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES, THOSE THAT ARE RESERVED TO THE STATE BY THE CONSTITUTION -THE ASSETS OF EVERYBODY- IN THE MOST ABSOLUTE SECRET.

They compromise the future of the country and will agree to “all kinds of negotiations” on matters as important and of great magnitude, such as the oil sector, without being accountable to anyone.

Impunity is enshrined, violation of the law, corruption and looting are encouraged. The future of the Homeland is compromised; the country is stripped of its riches in secret. A real piñata is coming, the pillage of an nation, where the madurism will distribute the heritage of an entire country among its agents and relatives.

7.     «FINAL PROVISIONS», THE CONSTITUTION IS REPEALED

This Law is completely outside of our Laws and of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. What maduro and his government intends is to consummate a COUP D’ÉTAT.

In its second transitory provision, the Looting Law establishes:

«The regulations that conflict with the provisions of this Constitutional Law are suspended; this Constitutional Law always will have preferential application even with respect to organic laws and special rules that regulate the matters dealt with by said provisions… ”

8.     THE CARMONA DECREE

ALL THE CONTENT OF THIS UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND ILLEGAL LAW, REPEALS DE FACTO THE CONSTITUTION AND THE LAWS OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA, IT USURPES THE OTHER POWERS OF THE STATE AND INCREASES ABUSE OF POWER, AS IT WAS PRETENDED TO BE DONE BY  PEDRO CARMONA ESTANGA ON APRIL 11^th AND 12^th, 2002.

Carmona was surrounded by soldiers willing to violate the Constitution and laws; maduro presents this law surrounded by military chiefs. Why? DO THE MILITARY COMMANDS VALIDATE THIS VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA?

Today, the same political and economic factors that supported Carmona are silent; they say nothing, they are satisfied with the maduro Law.

Carmona Estanga approved his Decree amid unanimity and the hubbub of dispossession and unconstitutionality; maduro sends his law to the National Constituent Assembly. Will Diosdado [Cabello] approve it? WILL THE CONSTITUENTS -POLITICAL LEADERS AND FORMER GUERRILLA PEOPLE- APPROVE IT? Will we see in the CNA the raised hands of the unanimity agreeing with the dispossession?

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan people are on the streets, desperate, with their hopes and misery on their backs; the government represses any protest; a plomo limpio, by shooting people, it imposes its economic package and its sellout laws.

TODAY, THE PEOPLE -WORKERS, PEASANTS AND THE SOLDIERS OF THE COUNTRY- ONLY COUNT ON THEIR CONSCIENCE, THE LEGACY OF CHÁVEZ AND THE SACRED REASONS TO FIGHT, WHICH ARE MORE CURRENT AND NEEDED THAN EVER. IF THE PEOPLE, THE WORKERS AND THE BOLIVARIAN FIELD DO NOT GO OUT TO GIVE THE FIGHT ON THE STREET, THIS GOVERNMENT WILL FINISH DELIVERING THE COUNTRY.

We must stop the delivery of the country; we must prevent a crime from being perpetrated against the sovereignty and patrimony of the Homeland. We must fight for the restitution of the Constitution and the laws, for the return of the participatory and protagonist democracy, for our right to a Sovereign Homeland, to a free society and to social justice, based on the Bolivarian Doctrine, for a country where THE WEAPONS OF THE REPUBLIC ARE ONLY EMPLOYED IN DEFENSE OF THE INDEPENDENCE AND THE SOCIAL RIGHTS AND GUARANTEES OF THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE.

RAFAEL RAMÍREZ